Her Guardian Angel
by xXRottWeilerXx
Summary: AU-based. The moment Ichigo saw the runaway woman with those grey eyes and long red hair, he knew he was doomed for trouble. /Rated T for language/
1. Prologue

**Her Guardian Angel**

**A/N:**You guys must be wondering when I would update 'INUGAMI'. I'm sorry to say that it's on hiatus due to some problems, mainly caused by my inability to think of a continuation to the latest chapter, and also due to the fact that I'm on a roll for this story which I'm just dying to type. I know, I should have finished my other stories. I will, but not now. Right now I'm focusing on this one and probably, maybe in two months I'll try to regroup my thoughts and try to post an update for my abandoned fics. Please enjoy.

**Disclaimer:**Bleach is the sole property of Tite Kubo-sensei. Or Kubo Tite-sensei. Whatever you prefer callin' him.

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><p><strong>Prologue<strong>

_Time: 1750 hours_

_Location: Karakura Cemetery_

_Subject: Ichigo Kurosaki_

"Hey there, mom."

His deep voice greeted the tombstone as he knelt on one knee to place the fresh chrysanthemums he had bought on his way, before he stood up with his shoulders hunched, hands resting by his sides. A loud thunder rumbled a few miles away as the pouring rain pelted repeatedly on him, drenching his orange hair, seeping through the wet locks and chilling his scalp before drops of them ran down his neck while some of them ended running down in between his eyebrows. A hand was brought up to wipe the drops away from his face. Feeling cold, he stuffed his hands into his front pockets, his shoulders hunching a little bit more. A wry smile formed on his lips as he began talking.

"It's raining again. I know, you're probably worried about my health. I'm fine, really."

He kept silent for a few more seconds, as if waiting for his mother to answer him. Then he continued, his voice missing that rough edge he used when dealing with thugs on the other side of the one-way mirror back at the Head Quarters.

"We just closed a case. Been going on for two months… Ishida messed up in the tracking so it took us a while to pinpoint their whereabouts… But we did manage to catch that guy eventually. And I got shot,"

He removed a hand from his pocket to lift the hem of his soaked grey shirt, revealing the bandage around his abdomen, the faint red from his unhealed wound seeping through the wet cloth.

"but it was nothing that Oyaji couldn't fix. But it hurts… a bit." He added the last statement hurriedly, as if not admitting that the shot wound didn't hurt a bit.

It did hurt, like a bitch.

He hadn't been shot in a while, not since he arrested Aizen. A few days ago when he was shot, he forgot how painful it felt to be taking a bullet. The image of Yuzu and Karin crying for his loss made it all the more painful, especially Yuzu. Young, gentle, sensitive, and pregnant Yuzu. He had cursed out loud and when he went after the fleeting drug dealers; ignoring the burning pain from the gunshot, he and Renji managed to somehow bring down the whole drug operation as soon as back-up arrived. He was hospitalized and was out cold for twenty-seven hours, rested for another two days, and he was walking to visit his mother a mere two hours just after he asked to be discharged (not without a warning from his dad).

A soft gasp from beside him made Ichigo let go of his shirt to cover his bandaged torso and turn towards his right. A young girl with dark brown hair with deep green eyes stood there, looking up at him while a small hand held up a frilly light blue umbrella over her head. Her eyes were glued to his chest, and he nearly cursed out loud when he noticed the muzzles of both his 40 Calibres peeking out from under his parted jacket. He quickly adjusted the leather holster holding the guns and opted to zip up his jacket. His lips turned up into an awkward smile as he knelt on one knee to talk to the girl. He tried to find words in his head to say something to the girl, so that she would not run away from him crying. But being Ichigo, what came out of his mouth in times of emergency never seemed to be of anything intelligent.

"Uh… Hey there. You… alone?"

The girl still had her eyes on his covered chest, her small mouth falling open. Her green eyes snapped up to look at his brown ones as she felt his hand shifting her umbrella so that it would cover her head better.

"Hey, mister. You have guns."

Ichigo tried to smile, but it turned out to be a grimace.

"Of course I do. I'm a cop… But you didn't see those guns now, did you?"

The girl shook her head vigorously, all the while keeping her grip on her flowery umbrella.

"I saw them. What am I gonna tell mommy?"

"Where's your mom? I don't see anyone else with you."

As if forgetting about the nasty-looking guns peeking out from his jacket, the girl smiled up at him.

"Of course nobody's here with me, I came here to see mommy! She's resting over there."

The girl pointed out with a hand and that was when he noticed the wilted daisies in the basket dangling loosely from her small wrist. A surge of pity engulfed him, and not for the first time, he felt like a jerk for asking about her mother in the first place.

"Your flowers are… dying. Wait, where's your dad then? You didn't come here by yourself, did you?"

The girl shook her head and skipped past him towards her mother's tombstone, and placed the basket with the dying flowers in front of the stone bearing her mother's name. With her chin, she motioned towards the tombstone next to her mother's, and it didn't take a genius to process what she meant.

Something twisted his gut, and he had never felt as insensitive as he was at that moment. It seemed like the most natural thing to do when he took the girl's hand and offered to buy flowers for the girl's parents.

"But mister, I don't have money."

"I'll buy them for you."

* * *

><p><em>Time: 1759 hours<em>

_Location: Dirty Secrets Pub, 37 degrees due north of Karakura Train Station_

_Subject: Shishigawara_

The trembling man was haphazardly thrown to the floor. His wrists and knee caps jarred as he hit the hard concrete on all fours, and a bead of sweat dribbled down a temple as he slowly lifted his head to look at the person seated on a large leather couch in front of him. The eyes of the men that lined the walls of the room glowed almost amber in the half-light. The man on the floor stared at the seated person, in the way that a cornered mouse would look at a cat.

"Evening, Shishigawara-kun." said the shadowy figure.

Shishigawara shrank away, his breath uneven and shaky. His knuckles turned white beneath the bandages covering them from his tightly clenched fists.

"You let her run away_._You let a _girl_run away. You _do_realize that you failed me again, don't you? And yet you had promised to not do such disappointing mistakes."

Shishigawara licked his lips and swallowed. "L-listen, Tsukishima-san…" he choked out. "I swear. I didn't know. I didn't know that she was that clever to use the air vent. And the cops... there was a road-block, sir-"

"Oh really?" The man in the chair leant forward.

His apathetic eyes stared the trembling man down as he snapped the novel which he had been reading shut, and that small gesture sent shivers down Shishigawara's spine. That small movement hid so much anger in it, even as Tsukishima had a small smile playing on his lips.

"Because to me, Shishigawara-kun, it seemed like the cops had a mutual friend in our…" Tsukishima motioned to the men in the room. "Friendship group. Someone who knew about our every move." He continued, leaning forward even more, resting his elbows on his knees and bridging his fingers together at the tips, book already forgotten as he placed it on a coffee table.

"Someone like you... Shishigawara-_kun_."

Said name gulped. The men in the room shifted back uncomfortably. They knew what was coming, and however many times they had seen it, it still wasn't pretty. Tsukishima was angry, _furious_, under his cool and calm exterior layer.

Shishigawara crawled towards his boss shakily, and stared him in the eye, scared every moment.

"P-please, boss. It was an accident. It'll never happen again." His stomach churned at Tsukishima's steady gaze. "_Please_. I promise you. The next time I come here I'll bring her back. I'll never fail you again."

Tsukishima smiled."You made that same promise before, Shishigawara-kun."

He feigned a hurt expression as he put a hand over his heart. "But you lied to me, Shishigawara-kun... How could you lie to me again?"

Shishigawara was sweating uncontrollably. "N-n-no, boss."

"And you know exactly what happens to liars here, don't you, Shishigawara?"

A nod, with tears beginning to form at the edges of his eyes. Tsukishima smiled even more at this reaction.

"So then, I hope you don't disappoint me again, Shishigawara-kun."

Thankful that his boss gave him another chance –again-, the sweating man gulped and let out a relieved sigh. He stood up shakily, and gave a salute to his still-smirking boss.

"I won't disappoint you again, Tsukishima-san! I'll step out of here and I won't return until I get my hands on that girl, Sir!"

Tsukishima nodded, his smile never widening or faltering, as he spoke up. "Good. You can go now."

Nodding enthusiastically, Shishigawara quickly turned around and left the room through the double oak doors leading to the long corridor of the upper level of the pub. As soon as he was out of sight, the smile fell off Tsukishima's lips, and his dark eyes turned almost red with rage as he voiced out between controlled anger.

"I want each one of you here to find that girl, and keep an eye on Shishigawara-kun."

A collective "Yes sir!" was heard in the room, before Tsukishima picked up his abandoned book to continue reading.

"I want Orihime Inoue captured before she gets to the cops. She had seen too much."

* * *

><p><em>Time: 1803<em>

_Location: Five block away from the Dirty Secrets Pub._

_Subject: Orihime Inoue_

It was raining hard, but she didn't care. Despite her bangs sticking to the back of her neck and on her forehead, Orihime continued running. For once, she didn't care if she stepped on some toes and elbowed through several stomachs as she continued running away from _that_place. She had gotten what she wanted, gripped tightly in her hands, and all she had to do was find the police station.

_No, not now. I need to hide somewhere first, gather more evidence and I'll... Onii-chan, I'll finally..._

She crossed the road even though the traffic light still flashed green and cars whizzed past her, several honking furiously as they nearly ran into her. But she didn't stop, and ignoring the confused, incredulous stares from others, she continued running. Even as her lungs burned despite the cold rain pelting against her, soaking through her light blue hoodie and chilling her to the bones, she took a left turn after her favourite donut shop, the donut shop she used to eat all her favourites and drink peach-scented tea with her brother before he died; but she couldn't think about those memories now as she had another important matter in her mind. She must hurry to the cemetery; that was the only place where those criminals wouldn't try to find her and that was the only place where she could hide for a while. Her apartment wasn't safe anymore.

"I'm near."

She whispered to herself as she climbed up the stairs leading to the big shrine in the middle of the cemetery. That was the only place that was left for her to stay at.

The shrine came to view, and she hurriedly took shelter and uncurled her fingers to reveal a flash-drive. She swallowed as she realized that that very flash-drive was all that she had to clear her brother's name and finally bring down the bad people who killed her brother. Those people who ruined her life, inside out. She smiled shakily as she clutched the small device to her chest, her teeth chattering from the cold.

"Just a few more hours and-"

"-We'll take you to Tsukishima-sama."

Her eyes widened as five men in dark leather jackets appeared from behind her. She backed away from them, and gasped in horror as her back hit the wall. A thunder rumbled nearby and the lights went out, causing her to swallow. She nearly gave up as the men closed in on her, but the thought of going back to Tsukishima and the hell hole he called his _palace_ made her steel her resolve.

The muscles surrounding her ankles retracted as she got ready to sprint through the window a few steps to her right.

* * *

><p><em>Time: 1805<em>

_Location: Karakura Cemetery_

_Subject: Ichigo Kurosaki_

He stood behind the girl as he watched her place the newly-bought daisies in a white ceramic jar in front of both her parents' tombstones. The rain had slowed down a few, but still pouring. He held her umbrella over head for her as she prayed for them; a small smile wormed its way to his lips as he heard the girl telling her parents about her school –she was nine years old and she was drinking milk everyday to grow healthy and tall like her daddy- and she also told them about this funny-scowling cop with a kind heart carrying two guns beneath his jacket and also a lot of cash that bought her flowers. She even told them about his orange hair and that in his other life he might have been a tasty tangerine. His smile fell at that somewhat-compliment.

Geez, everyone talked about his orange hair.

"Thank you mister. I'll be going now. Obaa-chan's waiting for me at home 'cos she can't walk, you know. So bye!"

She cheerfully smiled up at him as she took her umbrella and skipped away. He watched as she disappeared down the steps and out of his view.

"Strong girl, isn't she?"

The orange-haired Kurosaki nodded. Realizing that there was no one else near him, he raised a brow and turned to the voice.

He nearly jumped out of his skin as he saw the nearly-transparent ghost standing right next to him. He swallowed down the would-be shriek and scowled at the brown-haired ghost who he belatedly noticed that it was floating, and it was wearing a dark-blue suit complete with a dark blue tie.

He hadn't seen ghosts in a long time. He had grown up seeing ghosts, but the last time had been when he, Hisagi and Rangiku closed a serial murder case involving a murdered eight-year old girl.

"You're a ghost. What are you doing here?"

The ghost laughed self-consciously and rubbed the back of its head. "So you can see me, huh? I should have expected that though, because you nodded when I spoke up just now."

_And so I did._

"So? What do I need to do?"

The ghost looked at him, a confused smile in place. "Sorry?"

Ichigo ran a hand through his messy hair as he turned around slightly to face the brown-haired soul who hadn't crossed over for some reason.

"You have some unfinished business here, right? If not, then you're supposed to cross over to _that_place."

Momentarily amazed at Ichigo's knowledge, the ghost smiled. "So you understand why I'm here."

The orange-top shrugged. "I grew up seeing ghosts."

The nameless ghost nodded, and finally it began to sigh. "I see that I've found the perfect person."

Ichigo raised a brow. "For...?"

The ghost lend out a hand, and realizing that Ichigo couldn't actually touch a ghost, he smiled instead.

"My name's Sora Inoue. And I need your help."

Ichigo waited for another few seconds for the ghost to let out a deep sigh before he continued.

"Please protect my sister."

He had heard of many requests from ghosts before, and he grew up helping them as best as he could. He had helped an old soul to bury the body of her one and only dog, which had been her companion until she died. He had even helped a man deliver his love letter to his fiancée whom was about to marry some other man. But he had never heard such a request.

"What kind of-"

Sora's mournful eyes stopped him. "Please, Ichigo-kun."

As intimidating as he was, it was a fact that Ichigo Kurosaki was a real big marshmallow to such innocent-looking eyes. With a resigned sigh, he reasoned that Sora's sister might be some little girl staying at an orphan, or probably living with a foster family. He could figure out something as a means to protect that probably-small-little-girl-with-brown-eyes-and-brown-hair. He could... probably watch out for bullies or such. He forgot to ask the ghost how he learned about his name as he spoke up.

"Fine... What's her name?"

Sora seemed to be sensing something, before he smiled meaningfully at Ichigo. "Her name's Orihime Inoue. And... she's going to be here in a second."

Less than a second later, Ichigo heard the voice of a woman asking for help and footsteps nearing. He turned around, and saw a woman with long, odd-coloured hair running towards him.

Suddenly the image of the cute-looking little girl with brown eyes and brown hair so much like Sora's that Ichigo had been picturing in his head crumbled to millions of pixels.

"You've gotta be shittin' me."

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><p><strong>AN:**So, how was it? I intended this chapter to be longer but I decided to make this a short prologue instead. Sorry for some mistakes that I have and have not noticed when writing this story, I really appreciate you reading this fic in the first place. ^-^

Hugs and kisses!


	2. Chapter 1

**Her Guardian Angel**

**Chapter 1**

"You've gotta be shittin' me."

"That's Orihime, my sister."

Brown eyes widened as the woman came running straight at him, her long red hair matted against her face and neck, her blue hoodie drenched and clinging to every existent curve on her body, and her eyes, oh her eyes were bright and... frightened? She didn't seem to notice him though, as she glanced behind her to look out for something, or probably someone, before she ran face first into his chest.

She started, a loud gasp escaping her lips as she looked up from his chest. Blue flower hairpins that were supposed to keep the bangs out of her face were misplaced, causing some strands to stick between her eyes. Wide eyes stared at him for a moment before the woman spoke up between ragged breaths.

"H-Help me, p-please!"

Ichigo was about to turn to Sora when he heard other footsteps nearing them both. Five men in black leather jackets and some sort of animal tattooed onto the side of their necks stopped short as they saw the trembling woman clutching the lapels of his jacket. One of them held out a hand towards Ichigo, his lips in a straight line before he spoke up, voice gruff as if it hadn't been used in years.

"Save us some trouble and give us that girl."

Orihime tightened her hold onto Ichigo's jacket, her knuckles turning white. The sharp edges of the flash-drive in her right fist dug into her palm but she didn't care. She berated herself when she heard the man she had run into grunted and felt him uncurl her fingers from his jacket. She shouldn't have suddenly asked the person to help, she knew that, but she had no choice. When she had jumped out of the window she thought of nothing else but to find someone, anyone other than those five men –and more of them whom worked under Tsukishima- to ask for help. When she saw his bright orange hair from a distance, it hadn't occurred to her that he might have been one of Tsukishima's men who were out to get her. When she had crashed into him, she wasn't mistaken about the hard muzzles of the guns he was carrying underneath that jacket he was wearing. She stepped back a few, dreading the worst to come when he suddenly grabbed her wrist and shoved her to stand behind him.

Ichigo was livid. It wasn't for the fact that the woman whom ran into him clutched at his jacket and suddenly asked for help. No, it was the fact that Sora didn't even tell him that his supposedly sister was a fully grown woman whom in fact, looked utterly unlike the ghost. And her hard head had bumped into his chest, pushing the guns beneath his jacket to dig painfully against his ribs. If it wasn't because of his pride, he would've cried out loud when she even managed to bust his gunshot wound.

Also...

He looked up from the woman's face to the five men standing before them. Obviously, they were after Orihime. He didn't know why, but judging from the way Sora was looking at him, he knew what had to be done. So he grabbed the woman's wrist, told her to hide behind him and decided that his busted wound had to wait for a while.

"What problem do you have with her?"

Ichigo's voice filled the short silence. The man who held out his hand tried to form an assuring smile, one that didn't quite reach his eyes and poorly disguised.

"That girl there..." he crooked a finger towards Orihime, whom in returned clutched the back of Ichigo's jacket. "... she ran away from work and ... how should I say it... ah, this is so embarrassing but... one of her frequent clients is coming to see her and he's really worried about Orihime-chan."

Orihime's brows furrowed as she heard the man, and she tiptoed to whisper in Ichigo's ear. "I-I don't know what he's talking about."

Ignoring the lady behind him, Ichigo put his hand in his pockets, chin tilting upwards a bit.

"Prostitution is against the laws," He felt Orihime loosening her grip and he knew she was staring wide-eyed at him, but he had to know why these guys were after her to determine whether they were thugs or if she really had done something wrong."...you guys could get arrested for selling this girl. I don't see another reason why you guys should run after her, unless your boss is running a brothel for business and this girl here is a runaway escort. That or either you guys have another important business."

The man who had initiated the conversation let his hand fall to his side as he contemplated of another strategy to get Ichigo give Orihime to them without arousing suspicion. One of his comrades stepped up behind him and whispered a suggestion to him. He grimaced. No, they should not pull out their guns just yet. He somehow knew who the orange-haired man was; he was a cop and he didn't want to take any chances. He had made that mistake once, when he was a newbie; he nearly got Tsukishima and the others arrested, and his right arm had been taken from him as a punishment. It hadn't been pretty then, and it wouldn't be pretty now either.

"No, sir. Not prostitution."

Ichigo's eyes narrowed. "Then why the chase? What about that tattoo on your neck? You a part of the yakuza?"

Another man stepped up; he had a scar under his chin. "Listen here, punk. We've got no time chattin' around here, that girl took somethin' from our boss and we want it back. So why don't cha-"

A hand stopped him, it was the tallest of them all. A perfect row of white teeth flashed as he gave Ichigo a grin and motioned towards Orihime. That man, Ichigo noticed, was the only one who didn't have a tattoo on his pale neck.

"Sorry 'bout that. It's just that our boss lost something very important and Orihime-chan's holding it in her hands right now. Right, Orihime-chan?"

The man didn't wait for Orihime to answer when he stepped towards Ichigo, holding out a hand.

"We're just here to take it back from her. So if you don't mind, please let us take it from her hands."

Ichigo was about to protest when Orihime stepped around him and uncurled her fists to reveal empty palms. His brown eyes caught the way the tall man's eyes widen slightly, and the way the muscle around his jaw clenched. He watched from the sidelines as the man turned expertly-disguised surprised eyes to stare into her grey ones. For a moment, something akin to amazement fluttered in Ichigo's stomach as he watched her clench her jaw and even though he knew she was frightened –for some unknown reason- she still had that courage in her gaze.

She was being brave despite the fact that she was shaking all over, and Ichigo felt the first signs of recognition for this stranger.

The man with the scar cursed under his breath and walked up to Orihime. If it wasn't for her pride, she would've stepped back when the man closed in on her.

"Where is it, woman?" He nearly hissed at Orihime, whom was silently praying so that they still had the conscience not to rip her clothes off just to find the flash-drive which she tucked snugly into the side of her bra. They were, after all, in the middle of the cemetery.

She opened her mouth to answer when the scarred man grabbed the front of her blue hoodie. A second later, long fingers wrapped themselves around the man's wrist and squeezed it just enough to set her free.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you."

Ichigo spoke up as he stepped in front of the wide-eyed Orihime, and he unzipped his jacket. Five pairs of eyes, including a pair of grey ones dropped to the police badge fastened on the right side of his belt. Never in her life had Orihime felt relieved. So this orange-haired man could be trusted. And the fact that he was a cop made things all the more better. She just felt like Sora was somewhere above them, watching her.

The tallest man, who was also the most composed of all of the five men combined together smiled apologetically and backed away.

"Sorry for being rude just now, it seems that we've got the wrong person, sir. Hey, Gengen, apologize to Orihime-chan."

The scarred man, now known as Gengen cursed between clenched teeth before he grudgingly bowed slightly to apologize to Orihime. If she wasn't so shaken she would've admired the Gengen guy for still having the decency to be polite, if little. All five men disappeared almost instantly after that, and the rain had already slowed down to a drizzle, the sky already dark.

Orihime was left staring at Ichigo's back when she suddenly remembered about his help.

"Th-Thank you, sir."

He was silent for a few seconds before he looked at her over his shoulder. Her breath got stuck in her throat as she noticed his brown eyes. They were brown. And beautiful; she noted belatedly. Orihime wanted to slap herself for even thinking about that at such a wrong time but she couldn't help staring at him, her jaw slack.

"Where is it?"

His sudden deep voice startled her, and she blinked as he turned around to face her, hands in pockets, his opened jacket revealing the muzzles of two guns peeking from beneath it.

"S-Sorry?"

He let out a sigh as he walked closer to her, making her to look up at him. "When I saw those tattoos, it suddenly came to me..." He jabbed a thumb towards the general path the five men had taken when they left them two before he continued, "Those were Tsukishima's men."

Orihime gasped.

"You know him?"

"It's still in investigation and- hey, I'm not supposed to tell you any of this."

Silence stretched between them when Orihime remained staring at him, when she spoke up.

"Oh."

He could feel the beginning of a headache coming. "What 'Oh'? So, where is it?"

Confusion was evident on Orihime's face as she frowned. "Where's what?"

"I know you're hiding it... whatever it is."

Full knowing what Ichigo meant, Orihime put a hand over her chest. She looked around, and tiptoed to whisper close to his ear.

"I trust you, Police-san, but I think it's not safe here."

He nearly missed that because the moment she whispered into his ear, he didn't know what turned his ears warm. Either it was her warm breath tickling his earlobe, or her warm breasts –despite her wet clothes- plastered against his lean chest.

The moment she pulled back, the warmth evaporated, as well as the ghost of Sora Inoue.

"Let's go then."

* * *

><p>He stopped at the red light, and shifted the gear to neutral as he kept a foot on the brake pedal. He casted a sideways glance at the woman sitting on the passenger seat; her damp hair was beginning to dry and curl at the ends, and she had fixed her hairpins properly to avoid her wet bangs from covering her forehead. She was staring at a small device in her hands, which she had pulled from under her shirt.<p>

When she had lifted the hem of her hoodie and stuck a hand inside her shirt, his eyes about bugged out of their sockets. Even for a grown man, he just couldn't pretend that he didn't see her flat stomach and her navel. He had whipped his head the other way, cursing out loud. She had cocked her head at him, a confused expression plastered on her face as she pulled out a flash-drive.

He had barked at her to quickly strap herself to the passenger seat with the seat belt and sit quietly in that seat until they reach his apartment. She promised to keep quiet and sat obediently in her seat. Not that she had anywhere to go anyway. But for good measure, he had fastened the seatbelt for her seeing that her hands had been trembling. Maybe she was still shaken from her encounter with those men and with that in mind; he had drove away from the cemetery. And true to her words, she kept quiet since then, occasionally looking out towards the window and staring the flash-drive in her cool fingers.

"Did you skip school to get that flash-drive?"

He didn't plan to ask her that, but he couldn't help but notice that she looked young. Almost as young as Yuzu and Karin. It kind of surprised himself that he even took the time to notice the lady, whom was looking at him with a blank expression on her face. Ichigo Kurosaki was never one to really observe people, since that kind of job wasn't his expertise –it had always been Kyouraku's job to figure people out- and also he wasn't really keen on observing others unless if it involves planning a strategy to bring down criminals and illegal organizations. But that day, when he had no one else next to him but the drenched lady who had ran into him along with other troubles and accidentally busting his healing wound in the process, he just couldn't help but to observe her quietly as he drove to his apartment.

The woman, or girl, or lady or... whatever she was, suddenly laughed softly.

"No, I just got fired from my job."

The red light turned green, and Ichigo shifted to the first gear and stepped on the gas. As he stepped on the clutch to shift to second gear, he lifted a brow to glance at her.

"Job?"

She really didn't look like the type to be working as an office worker, or any white-collar ranks in that matter.

"I was a Maths teacher at Miyashita High... but I just got fired three days ago..."

Ichigo nodded slowly, the information sinking into him. She really didn't look like a white-collar worker, or even a blue-collar worker... or any coloured collar there is. He kept silent, trying to figure out how does a High School teacher got anything to do with Tsukishima. Just as he was about to turn into a junction to the apartment building he was staying at, his brown eyes caught the eyes of Sora Inoue sitting at the back seat. Surprised, he cursed and the tires screeched as his car ventured off-course for a few dangerous seconds, nearly taking out a sidewalk tree.

"What the hell are you doing here!"

Sora put a hand over his chest. "Really Ichigo-kun, drive carefully. You have my sister there. And you just cursed in front of a lady."

Gritting his teeth, he ignored Orihime's gasp. "Damn it." He muttered again as he noticed that the lady was looking at him with wide eyes.

"Police-san, who are you talking to?"

Ichigo grunted in reply, and as they neared his apartment, he jabbed a thumb behind his seat.

"That ghost behind me." He didn't tell her it was her brother, whom had made him promise not to tell Orihime.

Orihime blinked. "You can see ghosts?"

Finding a parking spot, Ichigo manoeuvred the car to fit nicely into the parking box. Turning off the ignition, he twisted his body a bit to undo the seat belt. Once he was done, he turned to undo her side of seat belt to get his mind off Sora's smiling eyes. He didn't know why, but that ghost seemed to know something that he didn't, and it bothered him because Sora's eyes seemed very human to him and very alive. Ignoring Orihime's embarrassed protests, he finally undid the belt and he leaned back into his seat to quell down the pain shooting up from his abdomen. They stayed in the car for a while, and Ichigo answered Orihime's question with a quiet 'yes.'

He looked up into the rear view mirror and Sora was still there, smiling at him. Ichigo scowled.

"Don't do that again, you surprised me."

Sora smiled apologetically, and again, Ichigo was reminded that Orihime –who was staring at him- and Sora looked nothing alike. He turned to Orihime, and she blushed a faint pink when she was caught staring at him. His scowl still in place, he opened his door and told her to follow him to talk about that flash-drive she had been holding. Sora disappeared suddenly again, much to Ichigo's relief. Being watched by a ghost was never his cup of tea in the first place.

* * *

><p>"She did what?"<p>

Tsukishima snapped the book his hands shut, a collective intake of breath following his action. The five men in front of him lowered their gazes to stare at the floor as their boss stood up from his leather seat. The tallest of them all lifted his face to talk to Tsukishima.

"We don't know how sir, but she found a cop and when we searched her she didn't have it with her."

A small smile lifted the corners of his mouth as Tsukishima turned to a bookshelf. He brought up a hand to trace his fingertips along the edge of a book, as he spoke up, addressing the tallest man.

"What did that cop look like, Gin?"

The addresses man gave a grin of his own. "Tall, orange hair."

A mirthless laugh escaped Tsukishima's lips. "Isn't this just dandy, right Gin? That guy seems to have an attachment to all of those you've worked with. First King Barragan, and who was it before me?"

Gin opened his narrow blue eyes. "He was Aizen-san."

The laughter stopped, and his smile fell as he turned to his favourite henchman. "Do you think he would get me after this too?"

Gin replied with his foxy grin.

"Not this time, sir."

* * *

><p>"Come in."<p>

Nodding to herself, Orihime joined the orange-haired police into his apartment. She stood in the doorway and watched him as he peeled off his drenched jacket, tossing it into the washing machine. Heat crept up her neck to her cheeks when she saw the sinewy muscles of his biceps flex as he moved to unfasten the holster holding his guns. The guns and his badge made a dull thump as Ichigo placed them on the kitchen counter top, oblivious to the way Orihime was trying not to gape at him.

She grew up with her brother, but while Sora was not lanky, he wasn't strongly built either. And even though Ichigo still had his shirt on, it didn't change the fact that the way the wet clothing stuck to his lean body spelled T.R.O.U.B.L.E if she didn't drag her gaze somewhere. Her eyes grew wide when she noticed the blood seeping through his wet grey T-shirt, and gasped when he lifted the hem to reveal his bandaged torso. He turned to her, not even flinching when he tossed his shirt over his shoulder. If Orihime wasn't so surprised to see his gunshot wound, she would've been impressed that he managed to throw away his shirt squarely into the opened washing machine.

Ichigo raised a brow as he turned to her. "What's wrong?"

With all thoughts on how nice his body looked even with bandages wrapped around him thrown out of her mind, she dragged her eyes to meet his, tears forming at the corners of her eyes. "You're... b-bleeding."

As if it was the most natural thing in the world to have an opened wound on his abdomen, Ichigo scratched the back of his neck as he took his cell phone to punch some numbers.

"Oh, this? I got shot about three days ago."

As he sent a message to Rukia to 'come to my apartment NOW!', Ichigo placed his phone back onto the counter top.

"D-Did I do that... to you?"

He managed to swallow down a sarcastic answer when he saw her eyes, brimming with tears. She _did_ cause his wound to open, but she had been scared. For the umpteenth time that day, Ichigo decided he should be nice to the trembling girl.

"No, you didn't..." He looked her up, noting that her clothes were still wet, and there was already a small puddle from where she stood in the doorway.

She was still clutching the flash-drive in a small hand, and when she opened her palm to hand the device to him, it suddenly became clear to him that her fingers were pale and trembling. The image of her trying to fasten the seatbelt with her trembling hands flashed for a moment and realization dawned on him. She had been cold, and she was probably freezing, seeing that her lips were pale and her teeth were chattering.

He took the drive from her and when his hands brushed against her cold fingers, he motioned towards the small guest bathroom.

"I have hot water in there, rinse yourself."

She gave him a wobbly smile, a dust of blush on her cheeks. "B-But I d-don't have anything to wear, Police-san."

"Right. Wait here a minute."

He disappeared into a room, his probably, and came out shortly with a pair of light green shorts and a black T-shirt. She smiled at him gratefully and he nodded towards the bathroom.

"Wear those. Tell me if you're still cold, I have jerseys here."

She wanted to thank him, but her stomach suddenly chose that time to growl. Despite himself, Ichigo couldn't help his chuckle when she disappeared into the bathroom, a shy smile on her face.

His cell phone dinged as it received a reply message from Rukia. 'What for?' it said, and Ichigo told her to just come, and bring Ishida with her.

Rukia replied shortly after he sent the message, and he cursed when she replied the message with 'Yeah, whatever mister Grumpy.'

"Damn midget." He said through gritted teeth, and his eyes fell to the puddle of water from where Orihime had been standing and took a wash cloth to wipe the spot dry before he himself retired into his bedroom to change out of his damp jeans.

Once he changed into a pair of grey sweatpants, Ichigo gathered his first aid kit from atop his bedside table and carefully settled down onto the edge of his bathroom countertop, letting the warm water run from the faucet.

He hissed as he unwounded the bandages covering his lower torso, revealing the opened wound. As he did with past injuries, Ichigo held a clean small towel under the running water and wiped away the blood smeared around the injured area. He gritted his teeth to refrain from groaning when he dabbed alcohol on it, and reached for a fresh batch of gauze and bandages to wrap his abdomen.

"Son of a bitch." He cursed through gritted teeth as he wrapped the bandage around himself, applying pressure to the wound.

"You shouldn't swear so much, you know."

Ichigo ignored the familiar voice hovering above him as he fastened the end of the bandage. He carefully stood up and with a scowl; he looked above him to see Sora sticking his head out from the ceiling.

"I'm injured, okay. And stop sneaking up on me like that, it give me the creeps."

As if realizing his bandaged torso and the ruined bandages from before in the trashcan, Sora made an 'o' with his mouth.

"You're injured, Ichigo-kun."

Ichigo rolled his eyes when Sora stated the obvious, and washed his hands as Sora descended from the ceiling to sit on the counter top next to the sink.

"Thank you, for saving Orihime just now."

Ichigo shrugged, and fished out a bottle of painkillers from the cabinet above the sink and downed two tablets. He then took out a fresh small towel from a drawer, wet the towel with warm water and started to wipe his arms and neck.

"I gave you my word, didn't I? Besides," Ichigo placed the towel aside and stuck his head under the water to wash his head. He came up for air and dried his head with the end of the previous small towel. "She knows Tsukishima, and we've been investigating that guy for months now. Maybe she can give us a lead..."

He stopped drying his head and turned to Sora. "Are _you _connected to Tsukishima?"

Sora sighed. "Truth to be told, I-"

Somebody was banging on his door, and as Ichigo came to answer it while pulling on a white T-shirt, Sora disappeared immediately. The banging got louder as he stepped out of his bedroom. With a scowl, he swung the front door open. Rukia stood just outside his door, Ishida and Renji standing behind her. She had her arms crossed and a foot tapped impatiently.

"What took you so long?"

Ichigo cracked his knuckles as Rukia and the other two men walked past him, and he could feel his temper flaring as she purposely stepped on his foot to get through.

"You didn't need to bang the door, midget."

Rukia waved his insult away and seated herself on the armrest of the single couch in the living room, facing the television. Ishida pushed his glasses up his nose bridge, and took a seat on the couch while Renji raided Ichigo's small kitchen to find something to snack on. From inside the kitchen Renji called out to Ichigo.

"Why did you call us here, anyway?"

Ichigo crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the kitchen doorframe.

"Firstly, I thought I called for Rukia and Ishida only. And there's something I need you to take a look at, Ishida."

As he said that, Ichigo went to his kitchen and came back to the living room to toss the device to Ishida who caught it easily. Rukia watched as Ishida held up the flash-drive, a brow raised.

"What's that?"

Renji came to join Rukia on the couch and tossed a bottle of mineral water to Ichigo. He caught it easily.

"That's what you call a flash-drive, midget."

"I know that, Ichigo. What I mean is, what's with that thumb-drive?"

Renji took a long swig of his beer and motioned towards Ishida. "Probably something important?"

"You called me here just to open this thumb-drive? Don't tell me you don't know how to do it yourself, Kurosaki?"

The orange-head nearly flung his unopened bottle of water at Ishida's head but he decided it wasn't worth it.

"Haven't you noticed that I haven't explained yet why I called you here? And I wonder why they call you a genius, Ishida."

The response he got was a glare from Ishida. Rukia sighed irritably.

"Just get on with it, Ichigo."

Ichigo ignored Ishida's glare –for now- and jabbed a thumb towards the flash-drive the man was holding. For a fleeting moment, he realized that the guest bathroom was silent, and Orihime was still in there.

"Remember Tsukishima?"

Ishida crossed a leg over the other and nodded. "That pub manager that we've been investigating on?"

Ichigo nodded. "Yeah, that one. I think we might get a lead by opening that thumb-drive you have there. I just got it from someone who's probably known him longer than us, and I didn't open it myself because there might be some password or somethin'."

Rukia seemed interested as she stood up. "Seriously? But how do you know it's a lead? Forget that, just from _where _in the hell did you get that? You _know_ that Tsukishima's gotten off the hook every single time and how do you know this is going to be any different?"

Ichigo smirked and took a long swig of his water. Just as he lowered the bottle from his lips, Orihime chose that time to step out from the bathroom.

The moment he laid his eyes on her, it became too late for him to stop the water in his mouth from spraying everywhere.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **As I said, I'm on a roll right now. So here you have it, the first chapter. Hope you guys like it. Oh, and I know this might be too late, but I just watched the 4th movie and I nearly cried with happiness at the IchiHime moment. And also the ending, oh, the ending was SUPERB! I cracked out loud when I read disappointed comments from the IchiRuki fans. I'm not an IchiRuki hater, but I just don't like Ichigo and Rukia together either. Ahahaha! I'm sorry, I'm just too excited. Who can blame me, ne? Okay, hope you have a nice day and thank you for reading. :D

Hugs and kisses!


	3. Chapter 2

**Her Guardian Angel**

**A/N: I just logged on a few days after I posted the first chapter and my eyes bugged out when there were 30 reviews for the prologue and first chapter alone! I was like, wow! I still can't believe that this fic actually worked. I've been studying about the police academy, the weapons used by police officers and rankings before I typed this chapter. I'm still green in all these types of information and knowing Wikipedia, there might be mistakes in my story, so please correct me if I had typed in something wrong and misleading. As a late Christmas present, I'm posting two chapters. Hope you like 'em.**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 2<strong>

The moment he laid his eyes on her, it became too late for him to stop the water in his mouth from spraying everywhere.

Eyes turned to the newcomer, who was trying to pull the hem of his black shirt to further cover her exposed thighs. Renji dropped his jaw, Rukia stared wide-eyed, and Ishida had to pinch the bridge of his nose to stop it from bleeding. With her cheeks flushing form all the unwanted attention, Orihime looked up to Ichigo from under her lashes and flushed even more under his widened gaze.

"U-Um... P-Police-san... I-"

Her words were drowned to a buzz as his brown eyes involuntarily dropped to her small hands, and _coincidentally_, -yes, coincidentally- the image of her smooth thighs and her shapely long legs that seemed to go on forever burned into his mind and the first thought popped into his head was-

_Holy Sweet mother of Buddha._

He nearly said that out loud and suddenly he could feel his ears growing warm and blurted out the first thing that came to mind; not once minding that his voice sounded as if Rukia had him by the throat with her strong hands.

"What are you wearing?"

Orihime looked as if she was about to cry when she looked up at him. "Th-The shorts w-were loose and-"

Ichigo swallowed and managed to cross the living room towards Orihime without actually tripping. He pushed her back into the bathroom.

"Stay in there, damn it!"

He barked at her and ignored the three pair of wide eyes following his every movement as he hurried to his room to search for a belt, colourful curses flying all around the apartment as he dug his closet for a sweatshirt. He reappeared into the living room with a grey sweatshirt and a belt he never knew he had, and managed to glare at the occupants of the room despite the heat creeping up the back of his neck.

"Don't say anything." He commanded venomously before he took long strides to the guest bathroom to knock on the door quite hurriedly. "Open up! Open up!"

Just as Orihime cracked open the door, he whipped his head somewhere else and shoved the items in his hands to her, nearly hitting her face.

"Use these. And... your clothes... your clothes, give 'em to me so I can wash 'em." By the time he finished his last words, he was already having a hard time breathing. Pain shot from his abdomen, but he ignored the pain as he felt her handing him her damp clothes bunched together into a ball.

Despite her flushed face, she managed to give him a warm smile. "Th-Thank you, police-san."

He replied with a grunt and growled. "Just hurry up, woman."

Despite his scowl, Orihime continued smiling at him as she retreated into the bathroom to put on the sweatshirt he gave her.

The door closed with a soft click, and Ichigo let out a heavy breath. He pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling a headache coming and cursed repeatedly under his breath.

"Shit. Crap."

He carelessly tossed the ball of damp clothes into the washing machine, and turned around to face the bathroom door and with a groan, he banged his forehead onto it.

"Police-san, a-are you okay?" her worried voice called out from inside the bathroom, and he couldn't help groaning in response.

"Nothing. Just hurry up."

He followed that with a few more curses, and snapped his head up to try his best to glare at the three occupants in his living room.

"It's not like what your fucking dirty minds are thinking, got that?"

That didn't seem to threaten them when Renji's and Rukia's laughter exploded, the latter rolling on the floor as she clutched her stomach while tears were leaking out from the corners of her eyes. Ishida didn't join them, but he managed to smirk at the scowling orange-haired man; despite the fact that he was still recovering from witnessing a half-dressed woman in Ichigo's apartment out of all places.

"Still afraid of women, Kurosaki?"

Ichigo pointed an accusing finger at Ishida, his nostrils flaring as he was tempted very badly to hit the spectacled man with his gun lying on the kitchen counter top.

"The hell I'm afraid of women!"

Renji slapped the couch repeatedly as he abandoned his beer in favour of making fun of Ichigo.

"You should've seen the way you were trippin' all over floor! Did you see that, Rukia!"

The black-haired woman was still laughing hard, and by the time she could speak up, Ichigo was already flaring.

"Don't tell me you got that thumb-drive from her? Your face was VERY red, Ichigo! You should've looked at yourself!"

Not wanting to take any more degrading comments, Ichigo stomped towards Rukia and caught her in a headlock.

"Say more and you're fuckin' dead, midget!"

Renji stopped laughing and pounced on Ichigo, knocking the orange-top off Rukia who was still laughing despite Ichigo's choke-hold.

"No, _you're_ gonna be dead, Berry-boy!"

Ichigo managed to kick the redhead off him. "Geez, get off me, bastard!"

"You're the bastard!"

By that time Ishida had already made himself a cup of tea, and watching from the sidelines, he dryly commented on how childish they were being.

"Shut up, Ishida!" They both managed to shout at him from the floor, and the spectacled man shrugged in response.

"Um... Am I interrupting something?"

Renji was on top of Ichigo, and his hand stopped mid-air as all eyes turned to Orihime, save Ichigo who was busy trying to shove the red-head off him. Rukia waved her hand dismissively as she sat on top of the armrest with a leg crossed over the other.

"Nope, Ichigo and Renji were just bonding."

Renji's suspended fist swung down and clobbered Ichigo squarely on his left cheek, crying out. "The hell we are!"

"Renji you piece of shit, get off me! My wound's gonna bust open again, dammit!"

Orihime widened her eyes as she watched Ichigo plant his foot into Renji's stomach, causing the red-head to be flung off his torso easily and hit his body on the edge of the couch Rukia was sitting on. Rukia yelped as she fell off the armrest, resting on top of Renji. The man grinned.

"Hey there, honey."

Rukia was about to plant a foot on Renji's face; when they heard Ichigo groaning on the floor. He had rolled around to lie on his stomach, and his fingers bunched a corner of the carpet.

"What's wrong with you, Ichigo?"

Orihime was kneeling next to Ichigo's lying body, her small hands trying to roll Ichigo on his back by the shoulders. She turned worried eyes to Rukia.

"Police-san was injured before we met, and when I found him I accidentally re-opened the wound when I ran into him. Police-san, are you okay?"

Renji blinked, and smacked his forehead with the heel of his palm. "Ah, damn it. Sorry, Ichigo."

Miraculously, Ichigo managed to sit up, his back leaning against the couch. He was sweating due to the pain on his lower torso, and he was scowling heavily.

"You fucking should be, Renji. Geez, Rukia. What _do _you ever see in that asshole?"

Blushing intensely, Rukia balled her hands into fists. She punched Renji hard across his face, and vehemently denied that she had anything to do with the red-head. (Whom was grinning despite the blood running down his nose)

During Rukia's rant, Ichigo turned tired eyes towards the red-headed woman sitting next to him, her face full of guilt. He tried to give her a reassuring smile.

"And you didn't do it, so don't blame yourself anymore."

Orihime nodded, her quivering lips turning up into a grateful smile. "Thank you again, Police-san."

"Don't mention it. Are the clothes okay?"

She nodded, her smile widening. "A little loose, but they're comfortable. Thank you, Police-san."

Ichigo let his head rest on the edge of the couch, and let out a heavy sigh. Rukia left Renji to lick his own wounds in a far corner of the living room and sat cross-legged on the floor facing Orihime.

"Hello," she held out a hand to Orihime who took it. "My name's Rukia. Rukia Kuchiki. Ichigo said you gave the thumb-drive to him, didn't you? What's your name?"

Orihime nodded and bowed slightly. "Orihime... Orihime Inoue. Um, are you cops too, like Police-san?"

"That's right, here's my gun here," She held open her jacket a bit to reveal her Colt Open Top .22 Short Revolver snugly tucked in one side of her belt, and motioned towards Renji who was busy changing the channels on the t.v. "That's Renji Abarai, he's not one of us though, he's a coast guard,"

"Lieutenant!" Renji called out to Rukia as he stretched his legs to watch a comedy show.

Rukia rolled her eyes. "Well, he's here because he's just lazy... Say, Inoue-san."

"Yes?"

Rukia looked thoughtful for a while as she glanced at Ichigo who was already trying to stand up.

"Did Ichigo do something to you? Well, it's kind of weird that he found you and suddenly you have this thumb-drive... He didn't happen to black mail you or something?"

Orihime laughed softly as Ichigo supported his body against the kitchen doorframe with an arm and sending daggers to the black-haired woman.

"No, he didn't do anything to me. I was running away from Tsukishima's men and I ran into him... I don't know if it's coincidental either but..." She blushed a bit, and smiled meaningfully at Ichigo who was punching numbers into his cell phone muttering something about going to his dad to patch up his wound. He looked up from the screen in time to meet gazes with her, and her blush darkened.

"I'm glad I met Police-san."

Ishida, who had been watching from the side-lines smirked as he saw Ichigo turning his face away to hide his embarrassed face. The orange-top cleared his throat and scratched the back of his head, his words almost turning into meaningless mumbles as he spoke up.

"It could've been anybody. You're thanking me too much."

Orihime's smile widened at that, and Rukia turned her head to change knowing looks with Renji who had long abandoned the television to peek at the way Ichigo was acting. It was rare to see Ichigo turning into a pile of messy goo just because of a woman. It was even rarer to see him so flustered when he saw Orihime in nothing but his shirt. Being a cop, he had witnessed far more explicit scenes than what he'd seen of Orihime; mostly during undercover. The man was more preoccupied in his work to even take a look at girls, and girls –mostly in the police academy- were too afraid of him and his infamous scowl. Rukia finally let out a chuckle.

"Inoue-san, I think you can call him Ichigo."

Orihime turned a confused face to Rukia. "Ichigo?"

The Kuchiki nodded, and managed to dodge the tennis ball that Ichigo had thrown at her when he noticed the look in the woman's eyes. She was going to make fun of his name again, he just knew it.

"That's his name. Everybody calls him that, most of us prefer calling him Berry-boy. Cute name right?"

"Do NOT call me that!"

Ishida raised a brow at the fuming Ichigo. "What? Don't you like to be called cute at all?"

"No, I'm not cute. Damn, this wound is fucking killin' me."

Orihime bit her lower lip, feeling guilty all over again. "I'm sorry... If I hadn't run into you, you wouldn't have had met those men and your wound wouldn't have worsen."

Ichigo sighed. "No, it's not... don't apologize to me Inoue. It's not your fault, okay."

She stood up and walked to him, twisting her fingers together. "Is it really not my fault?"

Ichigo shook his head. "No, it's really okay. It would've been worse if you ran into someone else, so everything's gonna be okay from now."

Her lips lifted back into a small smile. "Really?"

He brought up a hand to ruffle her hair. "Yeah, I promise you. Well, after I get my stomach patched up that is."

Her smile widened and a blush dusted her cheeks. "Thank you, Ichigo-san."

He was unaware that Renji and Rukia were holding in their laughter, as well as Ishida who was biting down a dry remark, as he blinked dumbly at her. He just realized that meeting Sora's ghost had suddenly turned his luck from rotten apples to shining gold overnight. There was something in the way she said his name that made his knees go weak suddenly and made his ears feel blissfully pleasant.

Dangerous. The woman was dangerous.

He cleared his throat and averted his eyes somewhere else, and his voice sounded strange when he told her to call him Kurosaki instead.

Orihime raised her brows. "Eh?"

He applied pressure to his wound to suppress the pain. "Call me Kurosaki. Please."

He added the last word a little bit too hurriedly, as if he couldn't stand her calling him by his name.

The painkillers were probably acting up on him again; he reasoned himself as he pulled out a kitchen chair to sit.

Orihime nodded. "Okay. Thank you for saving me, Kurosaki-kun."

Ichigo replied with a grunt. "Anytime."

* * *

><p>Shishigawara cursed again and plopped onto the seat with a loud sigh.<p>

"Damn it, I really screwed up this time!"

Gengen looked up from the newspaper that he had been reading to look at the frustrated Shishigawara.

"Yeah, you fuckin' did. Who does that, anyway?"

Shishigawara turned murderous eyes towards the scarred man. "Does _what?_"

Gengen opened his mouth to answer when a fist landed squarely on Shishigawara's right cheek, causing him to be flung off his seat.

"What the-"

His insult died in his throat when he met gazes with a man without a right arm. His gruff voice spoke up, murderous intent full in his voice. "Do you need me to show you, son of a bitch? You..." With his left hand, he grabbed the front of Shishigawara's round-neck T-shirt. "If you hadn't been so stupid as to leave that fucking thumb-drive lying there in that room, you could've saved us a lot of trouble, bastard!"

Shishigawara swallowed, but managed to talk back although he felt like cowering away in fear at a corner. "I-I was just doing what Tsukishima-san would've wanted me to do, and it was your fault the room was unguarded. Y-You should have a-at least three people in there, right? You can't p-put all the blame on m-me, Akuma."

The one named Akuma widened his bloodshot eyes, and attempted to clobber the younger Shishigawara into a pulp for talking back when a slim hand stopped his fist from coming in contact with the younger man's face.

"Gin."

The owner of the hand gave a grin, and clucked his tongue. "Hey, hey, Akuma-san, I know you're mad-"

Akuma shrugged off Gin's hand and turned to the tallest man, his eyes angry, his temper uncontrolled.

"I'm beyond mad, Gin!"

Gin replied with an amused chuckle, testing the shorter but larger man's patience.

"Okay, okay. Sheesh, calm down, will ya? We all know tha' Shishigawara-kun messed up, but we were at fault too, right?"

Akuma pointed an accusing finger to Shishigawara with his existent hand. "You _do _know that the girl ran away under that bastard's watch, Gin! If he hadn't been too soft on that girl she wouldn't have had crawled her way out of here through the air vent when he went out for a damn coffee break!"

Gin nodded, his laughing eyes turning towards Shishigawara. "Well, I'm sure that Shishigawara-kun's sorry, right?"

The mentioned man nodded enthusiastically. "Of course I'm sorry! I've failed Tsukishima-san too much already."

Akuma huffed and sat heavily onto a seat next to the strangely calm Gengen. Normally his temper wouldn't have exploded like it did just now with Shishigawara, it would always be the scarred one to lash out on Tsukishima's one and only right-hand man.

"If you're so miserable then pick up that lazy ass of yours and find where that girl's hiding."

Akuma snorted. Maybe he was too riled up because he had been thinking about that orange-haired cop. Akuma had lost his right arm due to a mistake years ago, just because he had accidentally leaked potent information on their whereabouts when he was fooling around with a hostess. It was the next morning when the cops came to search their nest, the Dirty Secrets Pub, when he knew that the hostess was an undercover cop. He had been unprofessional, and it was due to Tsukishima's quick-witted responses and Gin's experience in covering up their activities that they were safe from arrest. He had begged Tsukishima to forgive him, and as punishment, Tsukishima took Akuma's right arm to 'teach him a lesson'.

He let out a quivering breath, keeping his temper in check as he turned to the still-grinning Gin. He never told anyone, but he secretly hated that grin. Under that grin he knew that Gin was actually more dangerous than what they give him credit for. He had heard from one of his comrades that the silver-haired man had actually killed King Barragan due to disagreements before the police got to them.

Akuma couldn't bother to ask.

He wanted to live, that was for sure.

* * *

><p>"Aren't you gonna patch that up properly, Ichigo?"<p>

Ichigo shook his head and took a seat next to Ishida who had just plugged the thumb-drive into his laptop and waiting for the computer to finish detecting viruses from it.

"This will do, I'm curious to know what's got those guys chasing after her. Inoue, how did you manage to get this anyway?"

Orihime was sitting comfortably on one end of the couch, sipping the hot chocolate Rukia had made for her minutes ago. She didn't seem to hear Ichigo, as she continued to stare at the top of her drink.

She didn't notice the pairs of eyes looking at her, waiting for an answer. Ichigo raised a brow as he saw her absent-mindedly sipping her hot chocolate. She seemed to be thinking of something.

"Oi, Inoue. You listenin'?"

He waved a hand in front of her face, and she blinked up at him.

"Hm? Oh, did you open it?"

Ichigo frowned, wondering what she had been thinking about. "No, Ishida's decrypting the files in there. Did you hear me just now?"

Orihime shook her head, her eyes blinking again. Ichigo motioned towards Ishida's laptop with a hand. "Where did you get this flash-drive? You told me it was from Tsukishima, right?"

Something seemed to dawn on her for a second, before she nodded; her eyes were clear and seemed much more focused as she scooted closer to take a peek at the laptop screen.

"Before I ran away from that place, I managed to sneak into this room... it was full of computers and monitors."

Renji looked up from his pager. "Might be their Ops Room."

Orihime nodded, "I didn't stay long at first, so I decided to quickly escape that room before Sushigawara-kun could find me, and climbed back into the air vent."

"Sushi-what?" Ichigo interrupted before Rukia slapped her hand over his mouth to let Orihime continue.

"But how did you get it?"

Orihime placed her half-finished hot chocolate onto the coffee table and pulled her knees to her chest and hugged them close. She tucked a loose strand of hair behind an ear as she continued.

"I didn't look back when I neared the exit, but then I... I don't know why, but suddenly I felt like somebody told me to go back. I didn't want to, because I would be finished once they find me, but... I remembered seeing my brother."

Ichigo scowled when he noticed Sora popping out of nowhere again to sit comfortably on top of his television. The ghost was watching Orihime, his eyes distant and his smile forlorn. For a fleeting moment he thought he heard a sigh escaping Sora's lips, but his attention was returned to Orihime when she cleared her throat.

When she had found Ichigo in the cemetery, all of her fears vanished in an instant and relieved washed her, and for a moment she almost forgot about all the potential evidence in that single device she had taken from Tsukishima's place. Orhime could feel the lump in her throat as she recalled the moments when she had been trying to desperately get out of the small confined room that they had hid her. The experience was frightening, especially when she had squeezed her body through the air vent. When she found the Operations Room, with all the large monitors and High-tech computers, she had wanted nothing to just continue her way out of that place.

But then she had remembered hearing Shishigawara talking to Tsukishima about records. Something in her gut told her to back-track and find something, _anything, _that she could use to at least clear her brother's name. When she had retraced her steps, she had noticed something else in the middle of the room. It was a bookshelf, with lots of books on the top shelf and big hard-cover files on the lower part of it. She had hesitantly rummaged through the files, and found that all money transactions made by Tsukishima's secret organization to their clients were recorded in those files. There were even names of some higher-ups in the government; Tsukishima have been feeding them bribery. While she had been leafing through the pages hurriedly, she had wondered why their most important room was unguarded. The security was either poor or Tsukishima hadn't expected her to find the well-hidden Operations Room.

She had been busy keeping half of her attention to the door when she had found her brother's name in one of the records. She nearly dropped the heavy file on her toes when she found out that a few days before Sora deceased, he had received a huge amount of cash. She had nearly given up on running away; not with the knowledge that her brother was involved in bribery. She had refused to believe that her sweet, kind and gentle brother would've done something like that. He had never taken money from anyone else, despite the fact that he had run away from home with three-year old Orihime and had been working as a pizza-delivery boy for three years before he had enough money to send her to kindergarten. She shook her head to ward off all the horrible thoughts which were beginning to creep into her head at that time, and with what little will she had, Orihime told herself that Sora wouldn't have done those bad things. She tried to flip through the pages to find something else, maybe material that had been used to black-mail her brother, but she found none.

An idea popped into her head when she remembered about the computers sitting in that room. She had thought that if Tsukishima's organization was complex enough to be able to distract the police and covering his tracks with something else, he must have had the records in the hard-cover files to be documented in one of the computers. She silently prayed that her brother would show her which computer she should search for when her eyes caught sight of a thumb-drive sticking out of one of the USB hubs connected to the main CPU. She had called herself silly when she seated herself in front of the computer and with a silent pray so that Shishigawara wouldn't notice that she had been missing for the past fifteen minutes, she had gone through the thumb-drive's files and found what she wanted. It was a list of Tsukishima's clients for the past ten years including with an encrypted file.

She had quickly removed the drive from the computer and climbed her way back to the air vent. It had been a mere few seconds when she had been crawling her way out when she heard the door to the Ops Room banging open and Shishigawara's loud cursing.

"Kurosaki, Kuchiki-san, look at this. Inoue-san, is this the list that you've mentioned just now?"

Ishida's voice broke through her thoughts, prompting Orihime to scoot closer to look at the computer screen over Ishida's shoulder, and she nodded.

"Yes, that's it."

Ichigo's eyes narrowed as he spotted Sora's name and account number in the list. It was just a list of names and account numbers, he wondered how all of the names could lead them to capture Tsukishima. Sure, they could arrest him of bribery to government officials, but there was nothing that could be used to give them a lead to what they were investigating. He could feel it in his bones that the man was up to something, but there wasn't that much proof to hold Tsukishima in for questioning.

"This is just a list of transactions, Inoue. How can this be a lead?"

Orihime pointed the screen with a finger, leaning forward a bit. "This is just one of the things Tsukishima has been doing... Kurosaki-kun, I believe that you've been investigating him for months, right?"

She waited Ichigo to nod, and turned to Rukia. When the black-haired woman nodded too, Orihime continued.

"If you notice, there's an encrypted file in this drive. From what I've heard, Sushigawara-kun was the one responsible for keeping records of... other types of transactions. I had been locked up at his place long enough to realize that Tsukishima was actually smuggling weapons. I-I don't really know why, but I think Onii-chan knew about this, and he got killed when he tried to... tried to inform the police and coast guards."

Renji frowned as he took out a chair from the kitchen and sat on it. "We've been getting false alarms since months ago..."

Orihime bit her lower lip as she nodded. "That was probably Onii-chan... I thought all those months when he came home late were because he was working outside of Karakura and could only come home after two in the morning, but it made sense... He used to tell me to pretend that I didn't see him coming home late..."

Ishida nodded. "Yes, there's an encrypted file here. But I can't seem to decrypt this file..."

Orihime stood up from the couch. "Can I try? I'd been too scared when I took this away, but maybe I can try. I just know there's something in there, if I could just try to decode this... I've known Tsukishima-san since I was five, maybe I can use important dates."

Ishida lifted a sceptical brow and moved to sit on the edge of Ichigo's couch as Orihime wedged herself to sit between Rukia and Ichigo. She tucked some strands of hair behind her ear and rolled up the sleeves of Ichigo's grey sweatshirt. When she started to type, Ichigo couldn't help but feel anxious. So were Rukia, and also Ishida who was impressed at how Orihime was getting close to opening the encrypted file.

All eyes watched expectantly at the screen, even Renji was leaning over the couch to take a peek at the processing file. Files popped up on the screen a few moments later, and Orihime swallowed. Whatever could be in those files, she knew there would be something to prove that Sora wasn't involved in the smuggling.

Ichigo took the mouse from her, and started clicking on several files. When a file showing the blueprint of the Coast Guard Headquarters and secret underground tunnels leading to several black markets in Karakura, he couldn't help the smirk he had on his face.

"This is good stuff here, Inoue. Hey, Rukia, Inoue's pretty good, isn't she?"

Rukia snorted. "And I thought you were useless, Ichigo. How long have you been bringing us useless information?"

Ichigo let that one slide when he turned to a frowning Orihime. "How did you decrypt this anyway? Ishida's one of the best in the academy."

A file named 'evidence' stood out to Orihime, and she double-clicked on it to open. As they were waiting the file to open, she turned to Ichigo to give a nervous smile. She turned her head to the screen as a video played.

"Onii-chan and Tsukishima-san were friends for such a long time, we were practically family."

The video showed footage of smugglers in action, curses spewing out of their mouths as if they were merely spitting. She continued when the video went on for a few more seconds. It was as if someone else was taping the video secretly, judging from the crooked video frame.

"They made a promise when they graduated from college, that they would build a big practice company and do lots of charity work together. Whenever Onii-chan used to get so tired from work, he would always say to me that he'll try harder so that he and Tsukishima-san could realize their dream. He would always say that he would never forget the date they made that promise. I used that date to decode this file, and it actually worked."

Ichigo nodded distractedly as his eyes followed the exchange of money and bargaining from the smugglers in the videos, trying to pinpoint Tsukishima. He glanced at Orihime when she suddenly turned quiet.

"When was that?"

Orihime didn't turn to him when she suddenly stared at the computer screen as if she was seeing a ghost. She gasped when she stared at it for a few more seconds, tears suddenly gathering at the corner of her eyes. Ichigo frowned, and looked up at Rukia who was signalling him to take a look at the screen.

A single tear ran down her cheeks as Sora Inoue appeared on the video, talking to Tsukishima.

He turned to Rukia and Ishida. Renji and him changed looks when they all realized that the person taping the videos wasn't Sora, but it was someone else.

And that person might still be out there, hiding.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: I'm sorry again if there are mistakes in this chapter, I'll try to correct them if I have time. There's actually another reason why I'm posting double chapters. I'll be logging off for two weeks due to my finals, so I hope you understand that I really, really need to study. But who knows, maybe I'll post something in between my exams.**

**Hugs and kisses!**


	4. Chapter 3

**Her Guardian Angel**

**A/N: Hello! As I promised, here's the third chapter. This chapter contains mostly flashbacks, but I'm not really a master when it comes to flashbacks, because I tend to jump from one time frame to another. But I've tried my best to make this chapter easier to understand, so I hope you'll enjoy this.  
><strong>

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 3<strong>

Sora never told her, but when Orihime was born, she didn't have a birth certificate. His mother had been planning to send the baby to an orphanage, but Sora had begged her to keep the baby. He said he would go to the hospital himself to get a birth certificate for her even if his parents didn't want to. His dad had called him a troublesome child, and his mother happily dumped the small, tiny baby girl into Sora's care. But the young fifteen-year old didn't mind. He wanted to take care of Orihime. He was the one who named her 'Orihime', because he had wanted for her to weave her own fate, her own life. Orihime's name itself had shown how matured Sora was for a fifteen-year old.

He had worked at a convenience store to save up money to run away from home, and when Orihime was three years old, he took her in his arms and sneaked away from the place his parents call home. It had been more like a hell hole to him.

They had run to a relative's house, their mother's sister whom was nothing like their mother. She was the only relative they had after their parents, and she had taken them in because she lived alone and wanted company. She worked as a teacher at Karakura High, and she had loved Sora and Orihime as if they were her biological children. When Sora turned sixteen, she had tutored him at home so that he could enter college. Sora had studied very hard in the day, and worked as a pizza-delivery boy at night to save up money to send Orihime to kindergarten. Orihime had been four and a half when she saw their aunt begging Sora to not go to work, because she was worried of him.

"Your job is to study, Sora. With the money that I have, I can send Orihime to school."

But Sora had smiled and patted Orihime's head when she came to him to tug onto the sleeves of his shirt.

"Obaa-san, let me help you too."

That was what he said before he went out to work. Orihime had hugged her aunt, and said that 'Onii-chan's going to come home with a pizza again, so don't cry, Obaa-chan.'

Sora entered college, and Orihime had joined kindergarten. He thought that they were at last living normally, but on his first year of college, his aunt died of cervical cancer. The doctors told him she was supposed to go earlier, but she had fought her illness to see Sora go to college. Normally, children of Orihime's age would have cried and shouted for everyone to bring back their aunt, but she was different. She had been the one to pat Sora's back when he had been praying in front of their aunt's shrine. She said that when she grows up, she would be a nice lady just like Obaa-chan. She wanted to be a teacher. She wanted to teach maths because she liked numbers. He had laughed softly for the first time after years when he heard her say that, and wondered why Orihime was too clever for a kid her age.

They lived through the years after that, and Sora met Shukuro Tsukishima on their second year in college. They were both alike. Tsukishima had ran away from his abusive father to stay at an orphan with nothing but the clothes he had worn when he ran away, that was what Tsukishima wanted to believe in. When Sora introduced Orihime to him, Tsukishima had instantly loved her as if she was his own sister. Orihime had called him Tsuki-chan ever since then. Both Sora and Tsukishima became the best of friends, and graduated together. They had promised to work very hard as attorneys and meet up again to build their private practice to do charity work.

Orihime had gone through elementary and junior high with great marks, although there were times when she would come home with tear marks running down her cheeks. She had even come home with her hair cut very short. Sora had been worried, but she had just smiled and told him she had really wanted a haircut. She entered high school, and all the tear marks were gone. But Sora had a hard time warding boys off of her. He was thankful that she had a best friend whom was also the second strongest girl in Japan to look out for her.

A few years after that, she entered college, and time seemed to fly when she graduated. Her resume was accepted almost instantly two weeks after she graduated, and she had been teaching maths at Miyashita high. She had wanted to teach at Karakura, but Miyashita was nearer to home. Sora and Tsukishima had already opened their private practice together and did a lot of charity work, mostly for single mothers and senior citizens. Sora was already forty two when she had finished her fifth year teaching, but he looked young for his age. She had asked him about marriage one day during supper, but he had smiled up at her.

"Why are you asking me this?"

Orihime smiled back. "Because when you retire there would be no one here to cheer you up. I'll be very busy with school, and I really want to be there for you, but what if there's an emergency at school?"

Sora looked thoughtful for a moment and nodded slowly. "Then what about you get married first, and give birth to cute children for me to play with?"

She laughed, despite the blush on her cheeks. "Why are you talking like that? Mou, it's not that you're going to leave me just yet? You're still of marriageable age, Onii-chan."

Sora leaned forward across the table and put a hand on her head. "Orihime, are you worrying about me? Please don't, I don't want you to worry about this silly brother of yours."

Orihime shook her head, a frown forming on her forehead. "Onii-chan! Whoever called you silly?"

He let his hand fall to his side as he looked down onto the plate of cookies she had baked for him.

"Orihime... How old are you?"

Orihime nibbled on another cookie as she answered him. "Twenty-seven... why?"

Sora sighed and ran a hand through his dark brown locks. "It's been three years, huh?"

Orihime stood up from her spot to settle next to her brother. "Onii-chan? What do you mean by three years?"

Her brother shook his head, and looked up to smile at Orihime. Her bright eyes were staring at him worriedly, and she lifted a hand to squeeze his shoulder gently.

"Onii-chan? Are you okay?"

Sora ruffled Orihime's long red hair, but she didn't react with the usual yelp and pout. He inwardly scolded himself for being so foolish to keep following Tsukishima even when he knew under the man's calm exterior, lied anger and revenge for something that happened years before they opened the practice. He had fallen too deep, that he knew Orihime would be dragged down with him in a matter of time.

"I'm okay. Just that... Orihime?"

"Yes?"

He lifted the corners of his mouth in what he hoped was a reassuring smile, and playfully pinched her nose.

"Whatever happens to me, please believe in me. Okay? Even if I end up dragging you down... Please, believe in me."

Orihime nodded, and tears suddenly clouded her vision. "Of course I will, Onii-chan. Why are you worrying me like this?"

Sora laughed. "Hey, you're already a big girl. What's a big girl doing crying like a kid?"

Orihime wiped off the tears vigorously with the back of her hands and pouted. "Then don't make me worried, Onii-chan. You're even coming home late nowadays."

Sora scratched the back of his head, as if he was embarrassed about something. "Sorry, Orihime. Now, go to sleep, it's late already."

Orihime gasped as she noticed the time and hurried to her bedroom. She was already snoring softly a few minutes later. Sora cleaned up the used plates and mugs, and settled himself on the couch facing the t.v; staring at a blank screen. He closed his eyes as he leaned into the cozy couch. It would maybe be after some time when he could tell her the truth, and by that time, he wasn't sure if he would still be alive to protect her.

Sora Inoue was going to bring Tsukishima down, even if it meant sacrificing his own life.

* * *

><p>Tsukishima's eyes scanned the empty office of his business partner, Sora. It had been weeks when Sora would come to work late, but he wasn't mad. No, he wasn't mad. Tsukishima was just curious.<p>

What was keeping his friend from going home as early as he used to? As far as Tsukishima knew, they never had cases requiring overtime. Sora was the one to suggest that no worker should exert themselves in overtime. He was the kind of man who would complete his work on time, without the need to stay late at office. He was clever, and diligent in his work. People loved him, and truth to be told, Tsukishima would be lying if he said he didn't love Sora as well. The brown-haired man was his only brother whom he could trust.

Something clicked in his head as he saw a pile of opened books on his desktop. A long finger leafed through the hard-covered books, and Tsukishima realized that Sora had been reading documentations about smuggled goods, and weaponry.

A smirk lifted the corners of his mouth. So his friend finally knew. He wasn't that surprised, though. He had always known that Sora had a good head, and that it would be a matter of time when Sora would tell him to stop whatever he was doing before the police would really take him in for good. Maybe Sora would tell him that today? Maybe the man he had loved and trusted as his own brother would lecture him on what he was doing was wrong and against the laws.

Tsukishima knew all of that. He perfectly knew what would happen to him and his men if that damned Ichigo Kurosaki got wind of his smuggling activities. It wasn't for the fact that he didn't know about the sentence they were going to get if that orange-haired man got them by the throat. He knew all of that all-too-well. He was an attorney after all, with years of experience. But it was because he had a reason. His reason told him to do this.

"Shukuro!"

Tsukishima turned bored eyes towards Sora who was entering the office. "Ah, good morning, Sora."

Sora's eyes dropped to the book Tsukishima was holding. "Shukuro... so you found it..."

Tsukishima nodded, and placed the book to its previous spot on the desktop. He crossed his arms over his chest as he levelled his dark eyes with Sora's brown ones.

"What's going to happen after this? Aren't you going to say anything about this, Sora?"

Sora stood by the door, his fists clenched tightly at his sides.

"Do you remember that day when we made a promise? That when we opened this practice we would help the society, that we would help those in need? Do you remember that?"

Tsukishima averted his eyes to look at the toes of his dress shoes. "I do, Sora. But you _do _know why I did this? Why I'm abandoning the laws? You know why I'm doing this, right?"

Sora shook his head, and walked over to stand in front of Tsukishima. He grabbed both the man's shoulders and gently squeezed them.

"It had been a long time, Shukuro. No one remembers about what happened, even if you put a hole through their heads, they'll never remember! Please, stop this, you're just harming yourself! It's been three years already since I've kept silent about this, but I just can't do it anymore! You're going to get arrested and hanged! Do you know what that will do to me and Orihime? You'll be leaving us alone, Shukuro!"

A mirthless smirk lifted the corners of Tsukishima's lips as he shrugged off Sora's hands.

"I'll make them remember, Sora. Besides, I have my eyes set on this guy who's currently working with Aizen... maybe when Aizen's caught, I'll take him in. His name's Gin, a very cunning man he is. There's nothing that can lead me to the police, or even the coast guards. Especially the Chief Officers, I've fed them well."

Tsukishima gave a last glance to Sora as he walked past the oldest Inoue.

"Shukuro, listen to me."

Sora was ignored as the dark-haired man twisted the door knob. Gritting his teeth, Sora tugged on Tsukishima's sleeve. His next words stopped the long fingers from further twisting the door knob.

"If you get out of that door I'm going to the police and expose you. At least that way when they arrest you I can still fight for the judge to lessen your sentence! I'll make them believe that you turned yourself in, Shukuro!"

Tsukishima snorted, and turned dark eyes towards Sora, prompting the brown-haired man to let go of the sleeve he had been clutching.

"You'll expose me? You know you could've done that three years ago, but you relented. Why now?"

Tsukishima put a finger to his chin, making it look as if he was thinking of something. He clicked his fingers together.

"Ah! Probably because you were too afraid that I'll come after Orihime, right?"

Sora widened his eyes in horror. His knees buckled and left him falling down on his knees as he looked up to Tsukishima. "Shukuro... No, not Orihime. Please, just... just stop, Shukuro! I beg you!"

For the first time in years, Sora saw how Tsukishima's normally calm eyes turned wild. He refused to believe that the man he had trusted for so long could do something as horrible as plotting a revenge against the government. Sora refused to believe that the man standing tall in front of him was the same Shukuro he grew up with, who bought Orihime candies every Sunday when she was seven. But when the man spoke up, the voice was indeed Tsukishima's voice.

"Have you been sold off like me? Have you, Sora? Have you ever spent all your life with the image of your mother selling you off to your father in change of a better life every time you sleep? I was five, but I remember it clearly, Sora. A five year-old boy was crying, crying when his mother sent him off to an abusive father. He could remember watching with his own eyes how his mother was counting the money on her hands as he clutched onto her leg, begging her not to sell him to an abusive parent as a boy toy used by sleazy old women. He could remember it clearly when he had held onto his mother, begging for her to forgive him, and when she had turned her face to look at him in the eyes and say 'I don't like you'. Have you ever felt how lonely I had been when the cops took my father away, and when those bald old men you call the government beheaded my one and only relative? I hated my father but he was my only lifeline!"

Sora watched as Tsukishima closed his eyes and breathed in deeply to keep his temper in check. When he opened his eyes to look at Sora, a lifeless smile ghosted on his lips.

"So please, Sora. You already have Orihime. I love you so much as a brother, and I don't want to take you from Orihime. It will certainly break my heart, Sora."

After that, Tsukishima walked out of Sora's office. The door closed with a soft click, and Sora clenched his fists as he stood up. He looked up at the closed door, his eyes daring.

If he could save Tsukishima, then he would have to steel himself and collect enough proof to expose that man.

"Sorry, Shukuro. But I only have Orihime."

* * *

><p>"What are you thinking about?"<p>

Sora looked up from the figure of Orihime's sleeping figure curled up on the couch. A smile lit up his face as he saw Ichigo coming out of the kitchen holding a mug of hot chocolate.

"Just about the past. About how I came to decide that Shukuro must be exposed."

Strands of Orihime's red hair slid off the crown of her head and covered one side of her face. Sora brought up a hand to brush the strands away, but he stopped before his hand could touch her face. A pained chuckle escaped his lips.

"I've always been a useless brother to Orihime. I only have her in this world and yet... I caused her so much pain."

Ichigo seated himself on the armrest of the couch, and recalled what happened earlier, from the moment he visited his mother, that time when he first met Sora and when Orihime bumped into him. Then Renji, Rukia and Ishida came to his place and they managed to open the encrypted file, and he couldn't forget seeing her cry in front him and the others. He had seen Yuzu and Karin cry –the latter not so much-, hell, even his dad cried on a daily basis. But never had he seen a person cry like Orihime did. They all watched the videos showing Sora conversing with several smugglers, and for some reason, when she cried he could feel how pained she was. Sora disappeared when he saw Orihime excusing herself to use the bathroom, unable to look into Orihime's tear-stained face. They all had looked at Rukia, and expected the woman to console Orihime. She had sighed, and tried to make Orihime feel better.

Orihime had smiled, although her lips were wobbling, and she said she was being emotional. She even apologized for killing the mood. Rukia had been reluctant to leave Orihime to stay with Ichigo alone, but she was living with Renji and Orihime reasoned that her clothes were still drying. The Kuchiki finally relented and had the nerve to shoot Ichigo a warning look when she walked out his door. As soon as the trio left his apartment, Orihime had retreated into the kitchen to eat the pizza Rukia had ordered. Ichigo joined her in the kitchen and after a few awkward minutes, she suddenly apologized.

"What for?"

She had blushed and looked down at her slice of pizza. "Um, I was crying so badly just now. I'm really sorry. It's just that, I miss my brother. I never knew how much I missed him until just now."

Ichigo nodded thoughtfully, and hesitantly, he patted her head from across the small kitchen table.

"Hey, there's nothing wrong in that. You missed your brother, it's just natural for you to cry for him."

Orihime nodded. Her lips wobbled as she tried to fight another bout of tears. "Kurosaki-kun... You're very kind."

Ichigo had cleared his throat, and looked somewhere else. "I'm not that kind, I've shot people before. That doesn't make me kind."

Orihime had laughed then, despite the tears running down her cheeks. They had finished the pizza, and when Isshin finally came to patch up Ichigo's abdomen, she fell asleep on the couch, as she waited in front of the television. The older male had gasped so loudly when he saw Orihime sleeping soundly, and started to annoy Ichigo with his ridiculous innuendos. After Ichigo had kicked his dad out of his apartment, he had stood by the kitchen door, watching Orihime sleep.

He couldn't believe how much things can happen at one day.

Ichigo decided on a mug of hot chocolate before he went to bed when he saw Sora hunching over Orihime's sleeping form.

"Why do you keep saying that you're useless?"

Sora shrugged and settled on the floor next to the couch, content just seeing his little sister sleeping peacefully for the first time ever since she lost him.

"I knew about Shukuro's past, and I thought that maybe if I had acted more like a brother to him, he would finally let go of what happened to his father. When I saw him living life as if he had forgotten the past, I had been ignorant, and never suspected anything to happen. It was my fault, Ichigo-kun. I should have known what he was thinking, but I failed."

Ichigo leaned against the couch, ever mindful not to shift the couch too much so that Orihime wouldn't wake up.

"Tsukishima's sick, and twisted. No one could've helped him. Even if it were you, I can't say that he'd change his mind either."

Sora laughed softly, before he let out a sigh. "I always thought so too. But I should have known sooner. I had been so determined to bring him down for his own good, but I had been too late. I should have protected Orihime, Ichigo-kun."

They both watched as Orihime mumbled something incoherent in her sleep, and Ichigo placed his mug on the table so that he could carry the sleeping lady into the guest room. Gently, he placed her onto the futon he had laid out for her when she had been washing the dishes. Sora hovered above them and watched as Ichigo adjusted the pillow to support her head. He joined the orange-head in on the couch as Ichigo turned off the television.

"What had actually happen other than what you've told me, Inoue-san?"

Sora turned to Ichigo, a sorrowful smile playing on his lips.

"She saw me, Ichigo-kun. She saw everything when they shot me, right here on my chest."

Ichigo widened his eyes when Sora unbuttoned his white dress shirt to reveal a clean hole.

"You were shot, in front of her?"

Sora nodded. "That's why I'm a bad brother. She had cried so hard, Ichigo-kun. Even when they left my body in my office, she had crawled to me. I remember when she had cradled my head and I can still feel her tears on my face."

Ichigo cursed inwardly. He didn't know why, but the image of Orihime crying with her brother's body in her small arms didn't sit well with him. He knew he would've beaten himself if he ever did that to Yuzu and Karin. He'd never be able to forgive himself.

"When was that?"

Sora thought for a moment. "That was five days ago." His face fell when he continued, the pain in his voice evident as he spoke up. "Shukuro had allowed her to give me a proper funeral, before he took her in."

Ichigo's drink was already finished, but he stayed there as he thought of something. How long had Sora actually trying to gather proof?

"When did you start gathering evidence? You know; the statistics and those hidden videos you made..."

Sora held up his index finger. "I've been gathering all that I needed for one year, more or less. Remember Aizen?"

"Yeah, we arrested him about seven months ago... and a few weeks after that Renji said they keep getting false alarms... wait, that was you?"

Sora nodded. "Yes, Orihime told you already right?"

"Yeah, but she wasn't sure... And there's one more thing, who helped you tape those videos secretly?"

Sora looked worried all of a sudden. "I hadn't wanted to involve anyone else, but I had no choice. The name is Kira Izuru, he used to be my apprentice and he didn't know about the smuggling, not until I told him a year ago, when I started gathering evidence. But he's hiding, and I wouldn't want Shukuro to know that he's involved."

Ichigo nodded, and stood up to fetch his guns and badge. "So, we just have to find this guy before Tsukishima does, right?"

"Yes, that's it, but... it's not going to be easy, Ichigo-kun."

Ichigo smirked as he turned around to face Sora. "I know, but we'll find him. I have the best people in my team, don't worry."

Sora was left speechless as he watched Ichigo's back retreat into his room. Before the door was closed, Sora called out to Ichigo.

"Yeah?"

Sora smiled and made a perfect ninety degree bow. Ichigo raised a brow. "What-"

"Thank you, Ichigo-kun!"

Ichigo scowled to hide the embarrassment he felt. "Yeah, yeah. Go disappear like you always do, I need some sleep here."

Sora straightened his back, and his smile widened as he caught a glimpse of Ichigo's face before the door was closed.

Ichigo was smiling too.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: How was it? I know, there wasn't much conversation going on. And the change of tenses must be confusing, right? Sorry about that. I'll try to make the other chapters better. So, before I retreat temporarily for my finals, I hope you guys have a happy new year and always know that I'm very happy to have readers like you! I love you guys!**

**Hugs and kisses!**


	5. Chapter 4

**Her Guardian Angel**

**A/N: Egawd, I nearly forgot their names.**

**CH4**

* * *

><p><em><strong>flashback<strong>_

He was fifteen when she died.

He stood by the doorframe opening up to the kitchen, silently watching but not exactly paying attention to those who came to give their condolences to Isshin. He could hear Yuzu sniffing her endless tears away, as she tried to busy herself in the kitchen. Karin stayed in front of the small shrine, gazing at the picture of their one and only sunshine in the house, only moving slightly to change her posture. His normal trademark scowl was not there, and his eyes were a pair of dull brown orbs. Gone was the confident glint in his eyes, gone was the warm tingling feeling in his stomach when he looked at Masaki's smile, now forever preserved in the picture which was placed near the urn containing the ashes of Masaki Kurosaki. His father, not even shedding a tear, managed the small lifts in the corners of his mouth, letting everyone know that he was strong despite the fact that he just lost his wife, his beloved wife of fifteen years. Ichigo looked away when he noticed his old man turning to look at him as soon as the last two visitors said their farewells.

He couldn't do it.

He could never look at them in the eyes again. Not when he was the reason they lost Masaki. They never said it, but he knew they detested him.

If only he was home earlier last night, if only he declined Keigo's invitation to the graduation party, if only he had snapped out of his stupor when he and Masaki were cornered by those thugs, if only he was strong enough...

If only he hadn't run away when his mother had told him to.

Then Masaki would've been alive. Beaten probably, but she could've been alive if only he had snapped out of his stupor and if only he had put his karate skills to use.

All of a sudden, being the youngest black-belt felt like a whole load of crap.

"I'm going out." Ichigo didn't bother making sure if Isshin had heard him, and without turning back, he left the house clad in his black gakuran.

Slipping on his shoes, Ichigo walked out of the house, away from the suffocating grief overshadowing the place, away from the stench of the burned incense. With his head hung low, not even minding the rain pouring over him, he let his feet bring him to where ever they decided to lead him to. He finally stopped at the river where he used to play with Tatsuki and Keigo when they were small kids. They had come to the house earlier, and Ichigo had been quiet the whole time they were there. He could still feel Keigo's hand on his shoulder, and silently he thanked that.

"You can cry here, if you want."

Ichigo didn't turn his head towards the familiar voice. He ignored her as she held an umbrella above his head. Not looking at his childhood friend, he spoke up, voice hoarse from lack of use.

"I don't cry, Tatsuki."

The tomboy scowled as she noticed the defeated look in his eyes. "Bullshit. Everyone cries. You're still in shock, but you'll cry for sure when everything sinks in."

He turned to her, his eyes hard and his jaw clenched. "You think you know everything about me?"

Tatsuki scowled deeper. "I do. You're the kind of guy who blames everything on yourself. You're the bastard who thinks protecting everyone is your sole mission in life. You think that just because you have a black belt you should have been able to save your mom-"

Ichigo grunted and turned his back to her. Shoving the umbrella away from him, he let his head hang low on his shoulders.

"Damn it Tatsuki! I know she died because of me! I'm the one to blame here and that's why I don't have the right to cry over her, and I have no right to grieve over her! So leave me alone!"

He was about to walk away when he felt the hard kick in the middle of his back. He spun around, and glared daggers at the tomboy.

"What the-"

"Fine, I'm gonna leave you here, alone. You can mope here all day if you want, I don't really care. But think of Yuzu and Karin. You're not the only one who's grieving here, Ichigo. They need you right now, even your dad needs you. So just shut the fuck up and get rid of those tears you've been hiding before you go back to your family."

Ichigo grunted, and turned his face away from Tatsuki, not letting the girl to read his emotions. The dark-haired girl cursed under her breath before she walked away from him.

Not a few minutes after Tatsuki disappeared; he fell to the ground on his knees. His hands fisted, and his head hung low as he punched the wet grass beneath him with a tightly-clenched hand.

"Damn it!"

Ichigo Kurosaki finally cried then. The sky cried with him, mixing rain with his salty tears as he stayed there on all fours. His body shook as he cursed with every breath he took, letting it all out.

_**end flashback**_

* * *

><p>He woke up to something wet rubbing against the tip of his nose. Reluctantly, he opened his heavy eyelids, and his blurry vision cleared to focus on a pair of deep blue eyes staring back at him unblinkingly.<p>

"You again?"

The owner of the blue eyes answered with a 'meow' before it licked his nose again.

Staring up at the ceiling, Ichigo sighed as he was reminded about his dream. The dream hadn't surfaced for over ten years, and he wondered briefly why it had to come back, haunting him. He remembered crying by the river when his mother died.

He had never cried since then.

When the stray cat nudged Ichigo's chin with its wet nose, he crinkled his nose and his brows furrowed as he noticed that his bedroom window was left open last night. He yawned, and picked up the collarless white-furred cat only to put it down near the door as he walked carefully over to his window to shut it, ever mindful of the pain on his torso. The sound of muffled clatter made him turn towards his closed door, and for a while he wondered if Orihime was making breakfast.

He could feel a sudden chill down his spine, and spoke up as he fumbled through his wardrobe to find a clean T-shirt.

"Does your sister cook?"

Not a few seconds later, Sora appeared perched on top of Ichigo's wardrobe. He smiled fondly by himself as he turned to the closed door of Ichigo's room.

"She does, and she's a great cook if you ask me. You might want to watch out for her pumpkin pies, though."

Ichigo tossed a set of fresh clothes onto the bed, and started to take off his shirt. He stopped as he tucked his thumbs by the waistband of his sweatpants, and turned cautiously towards Sora, who was still talking something about wasabi and red bean paste sandwiches.

"Hey, do you mind? I'm gonna wash up here."

Sora stopped and blinked down at Ichigo. "Ara? Are you embarrassed?"

Brown eyes stared up at the ghost incredulously, and then his trademark scowl appeared.

"What the hell do you mean by that? Am I not supposed to be uneasy to have someone else watching me strip down?"

"What's the wrong in that? We're both guys."

Early in the morning, Ichigo felt harassed all of a sudden. "Of course it's wrong! Geez, what is wrong with you?"

Sora frowned as he watched Ichigo muttering some curses under his breath before snatching a towel and slammed the bathroom door shut.

Sora blinked, and shrugged. "Arara... he's a shy one."

Once inside the bathroom, the orange-head began to strip properly while his scowl remained on his face. He let the shower run for a few seconds, and making sure that the water was cool, he stepped under it. The water stung his wounds, and he gritted his teeth, reminding himself to be careful the next time he would be involved in a shoot-out. As the pain dulled, he closed his eyes, trying to relax.

He mentally made a list of things to get started on, and the first thing that popped into his head was to disguise, which typically came with dying his hair. After that, came the possibility of changing to a temporary apartment to bum at for the rest of the investigation, which would then result into him having to bother Kurotsuchi for false documents to be used. Groaning to himself, he silently cursed all the hassle this particular case was throwing at him. He hadn't resorted to disguise for two full years, and the last time he'd dyed his hair dark brown, he had to practically swim his way through the mob of nurses who came to 'check up' on him that time when he was quarantined by his dad in the General Hospital.

The image of the Serial Killer and Paedophile Nnoitra flashed through his head and unconsciously, he brought up a hand to touch the two-inch jagged scar running down vertically from under his left ear. The small scalpel Nnoitra had used to ambush him those years ago had nearly taken out a jugular vein, and the small scar had been a reminder to him to always think ahead before taking any action. He had only spent two years with the new team then, and after that, the higher-ups had stamped him as one of their favourites, and suddenly he spent the next two years in hard-core cases and in more than one occasion, Yuzu had begged him to rest a while and slow down.

"It's not as if I can do anything." He grumbled to himself, the frown on his forehead deepening.

Even if he had been given a choice, he probably wouldn't have changed the fact that it was his responsibility, and Ichigo Kurosaki never abandons responsibility. Besides, he had no woman waiting for him at his two-bedroom unit. Maybe if he had a girlfriend, he would rather have someone who understood his duty as a law enforcer. And just maybe, he would have probably tried to be more careful in accepting whatever cases that were thrown at him.

A strange clanging sound from outside his room made him hyper aware of the fact that now he was thrown into another troublesome case. Of course, the younger sister of his new-found ghost friend was a lead into his team's on-going investigation on Tsukishima. But the thought of her being dragged into this whole situation which would later turn very sticky, the idea of her probably getting hurt in the process didn't sit well with him. Rukia was right after all, about him being unnecessarily over-protective... but seriously, who could blame him? Orihime had run into him, looking all weak and small and...

She was a woman.

She wasn't like the flat and rough Rukia, she definitely wasn't the loud and perverted Rangiku, she was so not like the shameless and exhibitionist Yoruichi and he hadn't thought Tatsuki as a woman for she was very manly. Orihime was a womanly woman. A true babe if Keigo were to describe her.

Weird, maybe. But she was a woman, body and all.

It was a known fact to everyone who knew Ichigo, (and there were few people who actually knew him) that the scowling orange-head was actually one big bear with a soft heart, despite his rugged exterior and unnerving scowl. The trademark scowl he had on his face was a constant deterrent to women (if he ignored that time when he had dyed his hair brown), except for a few of those who had actually worked with him in previous cases. But Orihime didn't seem frightened for a bit. Besides Rukia, Tatsuki, and Rangiku, no woman had dared to look him in the eyes.

"You're very kind, Kurosaki-kun."

Round, bright grey eyes flashed underneath his eyelids, and he cleared his throat when he felt the strange tingling running down his spine. He scowled when he caught himself actually liking the way she blushed.

"Shit." He cursed between gritted teeth.

He shook his head to take his mind off of her, and reasoned to himself that she was just another victim. And that she came to him for help, and it was his duty to help her, as best as he could.

If only he didn't feel over-protective of her...

* * *

><p>Just as he opened his bedroom door, the white cat sprinted automatically towards the kitchen. The smell of pancakes filled the living room, and Ichigo's stomach growled. He raised a brow as he leaned a shoulder against the kitchen doorway, watching as Orihime bend down to pet the cat as if she had known the fur ball all her life, and resumed her cooking. Her head bobbed to the unknown rhythm she was humming by herself, her right hand flipping a pan cake while the other turned off the gas once the water in the kettle boiled. Ichigo opened his mouth to greet her when his eyes caught something fluttering on the laundry poles he had installed by the balcony. He turned his head to the foreign object and noticed that she was aerating yesterday's laundry.<p>

He blinked dumbly when he noticed the fluttering thing was actually a pair of dark blue lace bra, and next to it was a matching piece of panties. Realization hit him, and he whipped his head to look at Orihime's back. His black T-shirt caused one of her slender shoulder to peek out, and while the shorts he gave her the day before stopped just an inch below the backs of her knees, he couldn't help but remember the reason he gave her a hoodie to wear over his borrowed T-shirt. The sweater he gave her to cover her chest properly was tied around her waist, and he cursed his luck that day.

If his dad knew that he was letting a bra-less woman walking around his house, he was doomed.

"Yosh, tea oh!" Orihime cheered as she turned around in search for a teapot.

She was met with a wide-eyed Ichigo staring back at her. Oblivious to the fact that Ichigo was trying not to lower his eyes, she smiled up at him.

"Oh, morning Kurosaki-kun! I made pancakes! I hope you like chocolate."

Oh yes, he liked chocolates. But that was the least of his concern when he was broken out of his stupor, and in a split second, his face contorted into a scowl to hide the embarrassment in his voice as he growled out for her to wear the sweater properly. She blinked dumbly at him for a few seconds, and when she looked down, she gasped and quickly turned around. She reflexively crossed her arms over her chest, and with reddening cheeks, she stuttered out apologies.

"Seriously, what were you thinking?"

Ichigo tried to sound calm, nonchalant, but his voice turned out to be harsher than usual. He looked away when Orihime quickly untied the sweater from around her waist with a few hurried and awkward tugs, before she properly wore it over the over-sized black shirt she had on. She chanced a peek over her shoulder, and noticed that Ichigo was already walking towards her to turn off the gas she had been using to make pancakes.

"Come on, let's eat. Have you washed?"

Orihime mutedly followed after him to sit on the kitchen table, and shook her head. Ichigo motioned towards the dried clothes outside with a thumb, while he used his other hand to cut the pancakes into bite-sized pieces.

"Your clothes should be dried by now. Eat first, and then I'll wait for you before we go out."

When she didn't answer, Ichigo looked up from his chocolate-filled pancake to see Orihime cocking her head at him.

"Um... where are we going after this?"

Ichigo motioned towards the pair of guns he had stashed into a kitchen drawer.

"We're going to Head Quarters."

* * *

><p>"I would guess 34-F."<p>

An orange brow twitched.

"F? Nah, they're D. Definitely D."

A vein popped.

"What're you guys talkin' about? They're G! G I say!"

It so happened that Ichigo chose that moment to deliver a well-aimed punch towards the one who made that last comment.

"Shut up, Keigo. What're you doing here anyway?"

Nursing his reddening nose, Keigo Asano stuck out his bottom lip in a childish manner.

"As usual, bringing over coffee for you guys."

Ichigo made a face, and Keigo hurriedly handed him a to-go cup of hot chocolate with a flourish.

"Ah, and of course, your le chocolat chaud Monsieur Ichigo."

Flipping over some documents regarding Orihime's background, he briefly glanced towards the youngest Inoue who was seated in the coffee room, chatting with Rukia.

"Did you bring some for Inoue?"

Keigo tiptoed to get a better look at the document in Ichigo's hands, but when it seemed like the cop wasn't about to share information with him, the office boy nodded sulkily.

"Yeah I did. Man, where in hell did ya find her?"

"I didn't find her, she came to me."

It took a few seconds before Ichigo's statement dawned onto him. He covered a hand over his mouth, stifling his laughter. "Pft. Yeah... right... she came to you. Oi, ya heard that, Ishida?"

The spectacled man nodded gravely. "It's true, Inoue-san came to Kurosaki."

He walked pass a blinking Keigo and snatched the dossier from Ichigo's hands to take a look at it, also ignoring Ichigo's protests. "Aren't you supposed to be there with Kuchiki-san? Maybe you can dig up some more information from Inoue-san before we set out for Kurotsuchi's lab."

Ichigo deepened his scowl when he heard the scientist's name. "Ugh, why did he have to be in our team anyway? He's... creepy."

Ishida shrugged as he took a sip of his coffee, watching Keigo run errands for everyone else from the corner of his eyes before he replied monotonously. "Would you rather have Unohana-san?"

Ichigo shuddered at the name. He rolled the long sleeves of his black T-Shirt and started towards the interrogation room where Rukia and Orihime sat in without replying to Ishida's rhetorical enquiry. Just as he was about to open the door, Ishida spoke up.

"Don't forget to meet up with the whole team after the interrogation, at the fifth lab. Kurotsuchi's handing out our documents to be used for this case."

"Yeah, okay. See ya."

He waited until Ishida went back to the operation room before he finally went into the room to join Rukia and Orihime. Rangiku had been kind enough to drop by that morning to take Orihime out for a thirty minute shopping spree to buy a pair of grey sweatpants and a yellow sweatshirt, right after taking the dumbfounded girl's measurements.

He didn't know how groping Orihime's breasts would help to determine her size.

_"She needs a proper bra, little boy."_

...was what she said when Ichigo stared back at a sputtering Sora, equally dumbfounded.

"So, is Kurotsuchi done with our stuff?"

Rukia's sharp voice instantly cut through his short flashback, and he nodded before taking a seat next to Rukia. Orihime was listing down everything she remembered when she was held captive, names and places, things that turned out to be mentioned quite frequently during the conversations that transferred between a few of Tsukishima's underlings when the mastermind himself had not been around. Ichigo spotted a few familiar names, before he answered Rukia.

"He's gonna be done in a few minutes, said he wants to meet up with our team after we finish interrogating Inoue."

Rukia frowned. "Do you have to use 'interrogate'? It sounds kind of rude to Inoue."

Orihime looked up from her paper and smiled a little. "No, no. It's okay. I don't really mind."

Ichigo scratched the back of his head when he realized that Sora was nowhere to be found around them. He spotted a kanji character for 'Kira' when Orihime turned the paper in to Rukia and spoke up.

"I read your brother's employee list. By chance, do you know a Izuru Kira?"

Orihime nodded. "Yes, I do. He was my brother's apprentice... but Onii-chan prefers to call Kira-san his personal assistant."

"Do you know what he does? I mean, as a P.A. I thought you might know."

Orihime thought for a while before she nodded. "Yeah, he was always with Onii-chan so he pretty much does secretary work. He records Onii-chan's meetings and sometimes drops by the school where I worked to pick me up when Onii-chan is busy."

Rukia raised a dubious brow. "Doesn't your brother have a formal secretary?"

Orihime shook her head and smiled fondly. "If he had it his way, Kira-san would have been Onii-chan's co-worker if it wasn't for the fact that Kira-san doesn't have the required credentials. He officially signed up as a paralegal for the company, but Onii-chan felt that Kira-san wasn't given much credit for what he's really capable of. Kira-san was more of an organised person than Onii-chan."

She took out her cell phone which she managed to keep with her when she fled Tsukishima's lair, and showed a picture of a blonde-haired man with a pair of tired but kind eyes smiling awkwardly.

"Here, this is him. We were quite close, because I saved him once."

Both Rukia and Ichigo blinked. The female Kuchiki chuckled. "What do you mean by that?"

Orihime rubbed the back of her head and laughed embarrassedly. "Well, Kira-san is the type of person that you'd think easy to bully. He was about to be mugged one day and I saved him."

Ichigo raised a brow. "What exactly did you do?"

As if it was the most normal thing to do for a woman, she easily said, "I knocked the perp out-cold with my mawashigeri."

Rukia laughed, and Ichigo blinked dumbly before he coughed to hide his bemusement. He wondered what Sora had been teaching his sister.

Orihime nodded enthusiastically. "I learned karate from my best friend, so I'm confident in my martial arts skills... Um, speaking about Kira-san... why were you asking about him?"

Ichigo shrugged off his earlier concern of not to mess with the woman who knew how to execute a roundhouse kick and leaned forward.

"You remember about that video we watched yesterday? The video frame was crooked, and your brother couldn't have done the recording since he was there, in the frame. So someone else must have helped him record, right? Someone he could trust."

Rukia nodded to Orihime. "So Inoue, do you think Izuru Kira could have helped your brother? I mean, until one year ago, he was still your brother's P.A, am I right? So he must know Sora Inoue's whereabouts and other secret operations your brother was planning."

Twisting her fingers together, a frown marred her forehead when she looked up towards both Rukia and Ichigo.

"If Kira-san was the person who helped Onii-chan, doesn't that mean he's in danger?"

Rukia nodded gravely, and took out her gun.

"That's why we need to find him as soon as possible, and put you two in witness protection."

He could see, the way her eyes glazed over.

"I… I never thought we'd have to be in this predicament. It's… kind of scary."

She gave a weak smile, and it made Ichigo wonder. Why was she still smiling? Was she trying to be strong? He needed to ask Sora about that.

Rukia smiled back gently, and took Orihime's hand in hers.

"I know, and I'm sorry. But we'll protect you. Ichigo will do most of it but, yeah."

Orihime laughed at that, and her laughter seemed to ease the tension in the room. Ichigo watched as Rukia's smile stayed on her face, and wondered if the older had been this gentle before.

The sudden remembrance of Hisana, her sister who was once one of those who was kept under witness protection made him understand how Rukia could relate to Orihime.

Ichigo cleared his throat.

"Okay, I think we're done here. Inoue, after this you'll be escorted by Rangiku-san, and we'll meet up tonight at a new place. She'll explain to you what we'll do after this. Just be careful, ok?"

Orihime nodded obediently. She waved to Rukia as they left her with Rangiku to meet up with the rest of the team at the fifth lab.

"Rangiku-san, is it?"

Rangiku winked at her, and she smiled up at the older woman. "Yes, sweetie, do you wanna go somewhere first?"

"Can we go back to my apartment first? I need to collect some stuff."

Rangiku smiled gently at the Inoue and nodded. "Let's go then."

* * *

><p>"Onii-chan used to like this book. This was his favorite and he would read it over and over again… Um, is that shotgun necessary, Rangiku-san?"<p>

Rangiku nodded, and smiled as Orihime asked for the fifth time about the shotgun peeking out from under her leather jacket. She continued helping Orihime pack her clothes.

Orihime's excited eyes lingered on the shotgun peeking from under the jacket for another few seconds before she started talking about her brother's line of work. Her tendency to change subjects amused Rangiku.

Ragiku's first impression when they arrived at the Inoue's was that, Orihime was now lonely. She didn't have a living relative anymore. Back at the headquarters, there was a file on her biological parents. The prostitutes were found dead in a warehouse fire before during a drug bust fifteen years ago, and Rangiku being a rookie at that time, it was her first job: to collect the remains of the burnt victims. She chanced a glance at the young woman, who was busy looking for something underneath her mattress. Orihime probably didn't know about her parents. Seeing as how she portrayed the kind brother Sora Inoue to be, Rangiku was sure that if Sora knew about their parents' death, he wouldn't have the heart to tell Orihime.

"Are you okay? Orihime?"

The younger of the two turned to Rangiku, an envelope held in one hand. She blinked a few times, before understanding what Rangiku meant. A small smile stretched over her face.

"Well, everything won't be the same after this, that's for sure."

"Orihime…"

"But well," she hugged the envelope to her chest and gave a smile so bright that if Rangiku had been a guy, she would have fallen for Orihime already.

"Onii-chan used to say that there will always be something good that happens after every hardship faced. I mean, it's no use moping around. I'm alive for a reason, and although I might be sad at times, I'll still have everyone else to be with me. Right?"

Rangiku smiled. "You are such an angel."

Orihime blushed. She saw it then, a red dot hovering above Orihime's chest. Ditching Orihime's luggage bag, Rangiku quickly pushed Orihime down.

"Aw geez, Rangiku-san, I just-"

"Get down!"

In a split second, gunshots were fired from god knows where. Rangiku pulled Orihime into the bathroom, and told her to stay under the sink.

"You wait here, I'm gonna nail these sons of bitches."

Orihime didn't get to say 'be careful' when Rangiku had already ran out of the bathroom, shotgun firing madly. She closed her ears as the noise resounded everywhere around her. And then it stopped. It was eerily silent when she heard Rangiku let out a sigh of relief.

"Orihime, you can come out now."

Said name quickly emerged from the bathroom and felt her knees weaken as she saw two lifeless bodies in the living room, and another lifeless form dangling from the edge of the roof of the building opposite of her apartment complex. Rangiku somehow got the sniper as well. She hurried to the older woman and stopped in her tracks as she saw Rangiku holding the side of her stomach.

"R-Rangiku-san…"

Rangiku winced, and managed to smile at Orihime as she dropped to the floor.

"Damn it. They got me."

* * *

><p><strong>wow... I do owe an apology don't I? :3<strong>

**well, Mawashigeri means roundhouse kick. google or youtube it. you'll find out.**


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